Hall of mirrors : the Great Depression, the great recession, and the uses-and misuses-of history / Barry Eichengreen.
2015
HB3717 1929 .E37 2015 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
Items
Details
Title
Hall of mirrors : the Great Depression, the great recession, and the uses-and misuses-of history / Barry Eichengreen.
Author
Eichengreen, Barry J.
ISBN
9780199392001 (hardback)
0199392005 (hardback)
0199392005 (hardback)
Published
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2015]
Language
English
Description
vi, 512 pages ; 25 cm
Call Number
HB3717 1929 .E37 2015
Dewey Decimal Classification
330.9/043
Summary
"There have been two global financial crises in the past century: the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Recession that began in 2008. Both featured loose credit, precarious real estate and stock market bubbles, suspicious banking practices, an inflexible monetary system, and global imbalances; both had devastating economic consequences. In both cases, people in the prosperous decade preceding the crash believed they were living in a post-volatility economy, one that had tamed the cycle of boom and bust. When the global financial system began to totter in 2008, policymakers were able to draw on the lessons of the Great Depression in order to prevent a repeat, but their response was still inadequate to prevent massive economic turmoil on a global scale. In Hall of Mirrors, renowned economist Barry Eichengreen provides the first book-length analysis of the two crises and their aftermaths. Weaving together the narratives of the 30s and recent years, he shows how fear of another Depression greatly informed the policy response after the Lehman Brothers collapse, with both positive and negative results. On the positive side, institutions took the opposite paths that they had during the Depression; government increased spending and cut taxes, and central banks reduced interest rates, flooded the market with liquidity, and coordinated international cooperation. This in large part prevented the bank failures, 25% unemployment rate, and other disasters that characterized the Great Depression. But they all too often hewed too closely and too literally to the lessons of the Depression, seeing it as a mirror rather than focusing on the core differences. Moreover, in their haste to differentiate themselves from their forbears, today's policymakers neglected the constructive but ultimately futile steps that the Federal Reserve took in the 1930s. While the rapidly constructed policies of late 2008 did succeed in staving off catastrophe in the years after, policymakers, institutions, and society as a whole were too eager to get back to normal, even when that meant stunting the recovery via harsh austerity policies and eschewing necessary long-term reforms. The result was a grindingly slow recovery in the US and a devastating recession in Europe. Hall of Mirrors is not only a monumental work of economic history, but an essential exploration of how we avoided making only some of the same mistakes twice--and why our partial remedy makes us highly susceptible to making other, equally important mistakes yet again"-- Provided by publisher.
"A brilliantly conceived dual-track account of the two greatest economic crises of the last century and their consequences"-- Provided by publisher.
"A brilliantly conceived dual-track account of the two greatest economic crises of the last century and their consequences"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-493) and index.
Record Appears in
On-Campus Resources > Books
All Resources
All Resources
Table of Contents
Introduction
pt. I: The best of times : New age economics ; Golden globe ; Competing on a violent scale ; By legislation or fiat ; Where credit is due ; Castles in Spain
pt. II: The worst of times : Spent bullets ; The next leg down ; On Europe's shores ; Will America topple too? ; Largely contained ; Scant evidence ; The spiral ; Fish or foul
pt. III: Toward better times : Revival or reform ; Something for everyone ; Takahashi's revenge ; Dip again ; Preventing the worst ; Stressed and stimulated ; Unconventional policy
pt. IV: Avoiding the next time : Wall Street and Main Street ; Normalization in an abnormal economy ; Making things as difficult as possible ; Men in black ; Euro or not
Conclusion.
pt. I: The best of times : New age economics ; Golden globe ; Competing on a violent scale ; By legislation or fiat ; Where credit is due ; Castles in Spain
pt. II: The worst of times : Spent bullets ; The next leg down ; On Europe's shores ; Will America topple too? ; Largely contained ; Scant evidence ; The spiral ; Fish or foul
pt. III: Toward better times : Revival or reform ; Something for everyone ; Takahashi's revenge ; Dip again ; Preventing the worst ; Stressed and stimulated ; Unconventional policy
pt. IV: Avoiding the next time : Wall Street and Main Street ; Normalization in an abnormal economy ; Making things as difficult as possible ; Men in black ; Euro or not
Conclusion.