Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Has enough time passed so that everyone has forgotten that the economy ever had a problem?

It still doesn't seem like it. See Lehman Brothers, We Heard You Were Dead by ADAM DAVIDSON in Sunday's New York Times. He has a great quote from economist
"Kenneth Rogoff, who co-wrote the pre-eminent history of financial crises, “This Time Is Different,” told me that crises don’t end because new laws are enacted and politicians can be trusted again. In 1945, “the financial markets were devastated,” he said. “State and local governments had defaulted on everything. Lending had shrunk.” Somehow, though, the economy recovered and experienced nearly 30 years of robust growth. Confidence comes, he said, when “enough time passes so everyone forgets there was ever a problem.”"
I have quoted Rogoff before. See The Government Bailout: Are We Replacing Market Failure With Government Failure? and Gross public debt exceeding about 90% of annual economic output can slow growth.

Don't click on this link because it might be X-rated

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