Interest rate spreads fluctuate widely across time and countries. They have been identified as a major driver of the business cycle in emerging market economies (EMEs). Since the global financial crisis, spreads in advanced market economies (AMEs) have been systematically higher and more volatile, resembling the patterns previously characteristic of EMEs. Comparing the periods before and after 2008, we find business cycles in AMEs now more closely resemble those in EMEs along several key dimensions. In the second part of the paper, we provide a structural interpretation of these changes through the lens of a small open economy business cycle model.