The Great Recession in the Shadow of the Great Depression: A Review Essay on Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses and Misuses of History, by Barry Eichengreen
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 55,
no. 4, December 2017
(pp. 1583-1601)
Abstract
This essay compares the Great Depression to the Great Recession in light of Barry Eichengreen's new book Hall of Mirrors. Eichengreen discusses these two episodes from a historical, Keynesian perspective, and concludes that policies that increase aggregate demand, such as larger fiscal deficits, would have promoted a much stronger and faster recovery from the Great Recession. I review these episodes from a neoclassical approach, which provides a very different perspective on why recoveries from these episodes were so slow and incomplete. I also argue that supply-side policies, rather than demand-side policies, are more likely to restore prosperity today.Citation
Ohanian, Lee E. 2017. "The Great Recession in the Shadow of the Great Depression: A Review Essay on Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses and Misuses of History, by Barry Eichengreen." Journal of Economic Literature, 55 (4): 1583-1601. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20161344Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
- E52 Monetary Policy
- E62 Fiscal Policy
- F44 International Business Cycles
- G01 Financial Crises
- N12 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
- N22 Economic History: Financial Markets and Institutions: U.S.; Canada: 1913-