The Return of Depressing Economics

I just finished reading my most recent book, "The return of depression economics." This is the second book by Paul Krugman that I have read in the last month. I want to start with a couple of observations which add to my last post. Basically it can be summed up as, "Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize for his work before he was a New York Times columnist." What I mean by that, Krugman is in general a very partisan columnist and writer. While his economic credentials are good for analysis his predictive and current affairs analysis he purports doesn't always mean he is right. If you read the stuff he writes you will see his discussion of the need to reform health care is helpful but then he goes and attacks the right for things they do while not realizing the left is just as bad. So anyway I wanted to get that out of the way first.

So this second book of his I am actually more happy with from a content perspective. However the price per word was way higher in this book as the book is very short. The book deals with the history of bank failures and depressions in a general forum. Paul Krugman has an ideology which supports government intervention (Keynesian economics) and the role of government. So from that perspective all of the writings must be taken as such. However the book does a good job of covering the 1990's bubble, the Japanese lost decade, and the Asian financial crisis all from a 50000 feet level. This is helpful because there is a lot to learn from these thing that will help us understand the events of today. Additionally he discusses the causes (and as of Oct. 2008) the current crisis.

Besides directing you to the wikipedia articles on these events I have little else to say except that this is obviously a mass market book. I in general prefer more meaty books with more complicated arguments and graphs. This means that this books will only get a $1 of present value in 1920 (about $0.10 in buying costs) as opposed to $1 in 1990 dollars. I would recommend it if you just want something interesting to read and don't want an in depth analysis, however I would imagine that most people who read my blog would prefer the opposite.

For a little bit of fun here is something I found, this person obviously thinks higher of Paul Krugman than I do but the song is pretty funny.