The Return of Depression Economics
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: May 1999
Language: eng
Number of pages: 176
ISBN-13: 9780393048391
First sentence: HONG Kong's elite may have been sleeping off the festivities of the previous night; but there was no break for the construction crews working frantically on Hong Kong's grandiose new convention center, trying to finish it in time to accommodate the annual joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Description: Surely the Great Depression could not happen again; our economists and policy makers simply have too many tools in their kit and too much experience applying them. Or could it? Paul Krugman gives us a sobering tour of the global economic crises of the last two years.

In the 1930s policy makers realized that they had to limit the free market in order to save it. Today, when governments worldwide have spent decades lifting regulatory restraints on trade within and across their borders, interference in markets is completely out of favor as a policy tool. With his usual creativity and willingness to consider new ideas, Krugman suggests that a variety of capital restraints may well be in order.

This book is for anyone with any level of economic background who wishes to understand the stunning events in today's global economy.