Finally, until its tragic earthquake and tsunami, Japan was also recovering more rapidly than the other advanced economies. But it, too, faces issues with the longer-run sustainability of its debt as well as other structural challenges that need to be addressed.
At the same time, though, we need to be realistic about what can be achieved through the application of rules alone. History provides some salutatory lessons here. As soon as the ink  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  is dry on a set of rules, people start trying to find ways around them, and they generally have some success in doing so.