Indeed, with the benefit of hindsight, if there is a lesson in this experience, it is that the Bank should have pursued a tighter monetary policy earlier in the second half of the 1980s. A tighter monetary policy earlier on might have moderated some of the speculative activity and debt accumulation that subsequently weighed so heavily on our economy.
The other lesson is that fiscal policy, too, should have been tighter during that period. With a tighter fiscal policy, some of the buildup of public debt that governments are now having to contend with would have been avoided.