Eichengreen of UC Berkeley: Why have policy makers in other countries failed to move as aggressively as the U.S. to fight it?
Some countries, notably indebted emerging market countries in eastern Europe and elsewhere , have resisted stimulative policies that might produce a falling exchange rate, just as central banks in the 1930s were restrained by the gold standard. “Their reluctance is not irrational: Sharp depreciation can mean bankruptcy for firms and banks with debts denominated in dollars and for household with mortgages and car loans in euros and Swiss francs,” Eichengreen writes. “But the result is that policy is hamstrung.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/12/29/the-global-credit-crisis-as-history/