End This Depression Now!

Front Cover
W. W. Norton & Company, Apr 30, 2012 - Business & Economics - 259 pages
The Great Recession that began in 2007 is now more than 4 years old, and counting. Some 24 million Americans are unemployed of underemployed, and at recent rates of job creation we won't be back to normal levels of production until late this decade. Here the author pursues the questions of how bad the "Great Recession" really is, how we got stuck in what can now be called a depression and, above all, how we can free ourselves. He explains the financial crisis that triggered the greatest downturn since the Great Depression and outlines the efforts that have been made thus far. He answers such questions as: How concerned should we be about inflation?, or about the deficit? ; or about the deregulation of financial institutions? As the author points out in this powerful volley, "Nations rich in resources, talent, and knowledge, all the ingredients for prosperity and a decent standard of living for all, remain in a state of intense pain." He has a powerful message for anyone who has suffered over these past four years: a quick, strong recovery is just one step away, if our leaders can find the "intellectual clarity and political will" to end this depression now. The way forward is clear. Our priority must be to get ourselves back on the path to growth; every day that we lag behind normal production levels only adds to the astronomical economic loss. What is needed for for a rapid powerful recovery is a burst of government spending to jump-start the economy.
 

Contents

N0 Depression Economics
21
Three The Minsky Moment
41
Four Bankers Gone Wild
54
Fwe The Second Gilded Age
71
Sh Dark Age Economics
91
Seven Anatomy of an Inadequate Response
109
fight But What about the Deficit?
130
Ten Eurodarnrnerung
166
Eleven Austerians
188
Twelve What It Take
208
Thirteen End This Depression
223
Postscript What Do We Really Know about the Effects
231
Acknowledgments
239
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About the author (2012)

Paul Krugman was born on February 28, 1953. He received a B.S. in economics from Yale University in 1974 and a Ph.D from MIT in 1977. From 1982 to 1983, he worked at the Reagan White House as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. He taught at numerous universities including Yale University, MIT, UC Berkeley, the London School of Economics, and Stanford University before becoming a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University in 2000. He has written over 200 scholarly papers and 20 books including Peddling Prosperity; International Economics: Theory and Policy; The Great Unraveling; and The Conscience of a Liberal. Since 2000, he has written a twice-weekly column for The New York Times. He received the 1991 John Bates Clark Medal and the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. His title End This Depression Now! made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012.