(a)  Proximate causes  For proximate causes we can easily accept the important commonality and the main distinction between the two episodes. Both were caused by the emergence of multi-year overspending: the distinction lying in the fact that the 1980s followed a period of mainly public sector overspending, whereas it was private overspending that teed-up the recent crash.
Moreover, in many BIS Review 70/1998  -3-  cases the central bank is in a good position to strive for market-enhancing and prudentially justifiable deregulation and technical innovations. However, during liquidity crises, central banks should not assume an official, predetermined function of “lender of last resort” because of the associated problem of moral hazard.