Anti-Depressant

THE world economy has been looking up since this book went to press. Asia shows signs of bouncing back. The U.S. somehow keeps chugging along. So this might not seem the most promising moment to launch a tome called The Return of Depression Economics, even a tome as blessedly concise and breezy as this one. But what the heck? Paul Krugman is not predicting another depression, just the revival of a school of thought dealing with the question of how to prevent another depression.

To oversimplify, the recurrent problem of the past 30 years has been too much money chasing too few goods. Some observers would blame government deficit spending and consumers eager to live it up on credit. Some would also blame tax disincentives and regulatory policies that discourage production. In any case, the overall tendency was toward inflation and stagnation—culminating in the “stagflation” of the late 1970s.

HJ

About the Author

Holman W. Jenkins Jr.

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THE world economy has been looking up since this book went to press. Asia shows signs of bouncing back. The U.S. somehow keeps chugging along. So this might not seem the most promising moment to launch a tome called The Return of Depression Economics, even a tome as blessedly concise and breezy as this one. But what the heck? Paul Krugman is not predicting another depression, just the revival of a school of thought dealing with the question of how to prevent another depression.

To oversimplify, the recurrent problem of the past 30 years has been too much money chasing too few goods. Some observers would blame government deficit spending and consumers eager to live it up on credit. Some would also blame tax disincentives and regulatory policies that discourage production. In any case, the overall tendency was toward inflation and stagnation—culminating in the “stagflation” of the late 1970s.