December 1, 2009 Financial Times
"The perception in China is that revaluation ended the Japanese Miracle" [sidebar] Alan Beattie
<snip>
In the Plaza and Louvre accords of 1985 and 1987, the G5 (later G7) grouping of governments agreed first to weaken the dollar then to stabilise it, hoping to reduce the US current account imbalance, particularly against Japan. But though the dollar did weaken, America's trade deficit remained a problem. Moreover, the exercise was blamed in Japan for helping create the financial and property bubbles of the late 1980s, as monetary policy had to be loosened to offset the effects of a rising yen.
<snip>
"There is a perception in China that the currency revaluations of the 1980s ended the Japanese economic miracle," says Mark Manger, an expert on political economy at the London School of Economics, "so they are very reluctant to follow suit."
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Michael