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In the past decade, academic research has been awash with proposals on how Japan should reform, redesign and administer its bank-based financial system (Schinasi & Smith, 1998; Kuratani & Endo, 2000; Hattori, Koyama, & Yonetani, 2001; Rhee, 2001; Baba & Hisada, 2002; Batten & Szilagyi, 2003). Until the late 1980s, this unique regime, involving banks having cross-ownership with industry, was a driving force behind Japan's post-war economic miracle. However, the burst of the asset bubble, and the subsequent prolonged ailing of both the banking sector and the economy as a whole suggests that during the bubble period, the monitoring effectiveness of banks was compromised by a lack of independence from industry and the absence of external discipline. This banking crisis ultimately impaired the corporate sector's fund-raising ability, while trapping excess liquidity in the financial system through a lack of attractive investment choice afforded to risk-averse Japanese investors.

An interview with Milton Friedman in 1996 ‐ presents his reflections on some of the important issues surrounding the evolution of, and currrent debates within, modern macroeconomics. A world‐renowned economist and prolific author since the 1930s, Milton Friedman has had a considerable impact on macroeconomic theory and policy making. Associated mostly with monetarism and the efficacy of free markets, his work has ranged over a broader area ‐ microeconomics, methodology, consumption function, applied statistics, international economics, monetary theory, history and policy, business cycles and inflation. In the interview discusses Keynes’s General Theory, monetarism, new classical macroeconomics, methodology, economic policy, European union and the monetarist counter‐revolution.

Sufficiently persistent rise in nominal interest increases inflation rate in short-run. This short-run comovement of nominal interest rate and inflation rate is known as Neo-Fisherianism. This chapter proposes a policy based on Neo-Fisherianism to escape Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) using a textbook Forward Looking New Keynesian Model. I have shown that proposed policy with properly chosen inflation target and persistence can stimulate economy and escape ZLB by raising nominal interest rate. I have also shown that the proposed policy is robust to varying degrees of price stickiness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine liquidity risk in Pakistani banks and evaluate the effect on banks' profitability.

Data are retrieved from the balance sheets, income statements and notes of 22 Pakistani banks during 2004‐2009. Multiple regressions are applied to assess the impact of liquidity risk on banks' profitability.

The results of multiple regressions show that liquidity risk affects bank profitability significantly, with liquidity gap and non‐performing as the two factors exacerbating the liquidity risk. They have a negative relationship with profitability.

The period studied in this paper is 2004‐2009, due to availability of the data. However, the sample period does not impair the findings since the sample includes 22 banks, which constitute the main part of the Pakistani banking system. Moreover, only profitability is used as the measure of performance. Economic factors contributing to liquidity risk are not covered in this paper.

This is the first paper addressing the liquidity risk faced by the Pakistani banking system. Past researchers and practitioners have not given the proper attention to liquidity risk. This paper helps in understanding the factors of liquidity risk and their impact on the profitability of the banking system. The authors emphasise contemporary risk managers to mitigate liquidity risk by having sufficient cash resources. This will reduce the liquidity gap, thereby reducing the dependence on repo market.

A key problem for Japanese government policy relates to developing alternate forms of financing and investment. This study recommends that further development of Japan’s corporate bond market will provide an alternate investment vehicle, though improved access by foreign market participants including borrowers, investors and investment banks is a necessary precondition to the development of this market. Concerted efforts must be made to ease Japanese investors’ excessive aversion to risk, which limits the development of the extensive high-yield markets that exist in the U.S. and are now developing in Europe.