One of the lessons of Japan’s “lost decade” is that an economy cannot really have sustainable growth until past excesses have been worked off. In the meantime, frictions are rising that could reduce the efficiency of the global economy.
The decontrol of exchange rates, the increasing freedom of capital movements and diverging stability records are the reason why other currencies, such as the Deutsche Mark, have been BIS Review 101/1997  -2-  able to establish themselves alongside the dollar -- albeit on a far more modest scale.