Where Keynes Went Right?
Yesterday, we took a look at Hunter Lewis’ view of the causes of our economic problems. Today, some contrary views from economist Paul Krugman:
In 1999, when the first version of “The Return of Depression Economics” was published, the title seemed provocative and its thesis was cavalierly dismissed by conservative economists. But today, fear rules the markets, John Maynard Keynes is back in fashion, and the stars of Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan are fading.
–Andrew Leonard, Salon
In a Forbes.com video, Pulitzer-price-winning economist and NY Times commenter Paul Krugman says forgetting Keynes statement that interest rates can be too low was one reason for our current economic problems.
Krugman also says that the more important cause of our current problems is that we forgot the need for the safeguards and regulations–such as the regulations put in place after the Great Depression of the 1930s and which, according to Krugman, allowed us to avoid “Depression Economics” for about 60 years.
For more on this, see Krugman’s book, The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.
Tomorrow: political commenter Kevin Phillips with a viewpoint that the Reagan era was not all that some say it was