Ron Paul’s aversion to monetary expansion in the middle of an economic crisis is a fringe libertarian idea—and also widely held in America’s political mainstream, including by some Fed officials. This wave of thinking seems to foreshadow a worrisome trend: the ongoing Japanization of the West.

Japan’s Lost Decade was defined by no growth, extremely low interest rates and yet no inflation, rising debt burden, and a pervasive culture of bailouts and crony capitalism. Sound familiar?