Emerging markets have coped with the rate shock surprisingly well

The prospect of rising interest rates in America has long stoked anxiety as far away as Mexico City, Delhi and Jakarta—with good reason. When Paul Volcker, then the chairman of the Federal Reserve, tightened monetary policy to tame inflation in the early 1980s, Latin American countries were plunged into crisis as they fell behind on their dollar debts. A decade later American rate rises precipitated Mexico’s tequila crisis. And in 2013 the Fed’s attempt to scale back its bond-buying led to a “taper tantrum”, in which panicking foreign investors fled fragile economies including Brazil, India and Indonesia.