Its depressing reading about depression ... economics. It all seems so avoidable and a bunch of pointless suffering from the worse elements of unstable human nature actualized by the global web of fractional banking... Not that better monetary schemes have been shown to be workable and Krugman does try to liven things up with wit. This is another book that erodes the Greenspan edifice; Alan presided over decades of healthy economic growth he did nothing to engender to then guide short-sighted policy into two asset bubble: Dot Com boom and housing boom... I had taken 10 minutes out of my day and crafted a beautiful review(well it was adequate at least) and what does Goodreads do? Lose it in the process of uploading it.So now I have to start all over again.Basically the gist of what I said was Krugman presents a decent argument here that regulation oversight and the lack of regulating risky off-balance sheet activities got us in the mess in the first place.And that it has happened before in the form of bank runs and bank failures.He is also pretty scathing about the IMF and its policies after the Asian financial crisis of 1997 where instead of pursuing sound economic policies it instead tried to please the market likening it to pre-Keynesian macroeconomic policies that took place during the Great Depression.And by not taking a preachy tone(even though I agree with his economics) he makes this a compelling read even for those who don't agree with his views on economic theory.
I think it is still a very useful read. If you haven't read it yet, please do so.
—Mumin
Thorough with some new insights. Not radical though, but well it is Krugman.
—yiang5
I enjoyed this book
—typewriter
Brilliant
—Chrys
