Much has been written on the effects of imbalances in trade, current and financial accounts, saving and investment, and government tax-and-spending policies on international capital flows. Issues such as the over-dependence on foreign sources of financing, the creation of distortions in domestic financial markets and help in fueling eras of cheap and widely available credit are among them. Also involved are considerations of national exchange rate policies, be they intentional or consequential. Examples include China's 1994 devaluation and their 10-year alignment to the U.S. dollar as well as their current controlled adjustments, both up and down. Then there are the low-interest-rate, monetary stimuli of the U.S. and Japan. Weigh in on this discussion in the context of both how we got here and where we might be going.

See, for starters, Ben Bernanke's speech of March 2005

please don't provide the following answer: The implications of Low interest rates for monetary and fiscal stimulus

There is probably no issue in macroeconomics that is more misunderstood than the low interest rate environment. Let's go over some of the misconceptions:

1. Most people correctly understand that the zero bound is bad news for monetary stimulus, but they don't know why. They think it's because monetary stimulus works through lowering interest rates, and nominal rates cannot be cut significantly below zero. In fact, monetary stimulus is easy to do the zero bound, just peg NGDP futures contracts at a price 5% above current NGDP and your policy will be expected to succeed. In all likelihood no QE will be needed......