Long before the U.S. and Europe embraced radical monetary policies last decade during the global financial crisis there was the Bank of Japan.
Twenty years ago this month — back when the American economy was running hot under Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the euro was making its debut on the world stage — the BOJ adopted zero interest rates, taking central banking into uncharted waters.
Barely two years later, while benchmark rates in the U.S. and Europe were around 5 percent, it doubled down with a quantitative easing program to flood the banking system with cash. The BOJ's strategies were seen as both extreme and peculiar to Japan — that is until the 2008 financial markets conflagration and resulting economic contractions forced the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank down similar paths.