<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Sh%C5%8Dwa_financial_crisis" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Sh%C5%8Dwa_financial_crisis</a><p>Japan (at the time, primarily a few zaibatsu) had serious financial problems when their export bubble popped in the 1920s. Unfortunately, they bought into myth that austerity lowers debts <i>really badly</i>, and decided it was a good idea to cut out 30% (!) of their GDP in two years. When that only made the situation worse, they doubled down and tried to cut another ~10%.<p>The zaibatsu and 37 banks went under in the inevitable bank-run, and quite a few financial leaders were assassinated when the military realized their budget was about the only thing left that could be cut.<p>Compared to that mess, the US has done a relatively good job of inflating away it&#x27;s debts. Our gridlock blocked most of the austerity &quot;fixes&quot;, so while we still have a mess of an economy, at least it isn&#x27;t slashing a third of our GDP.