CIAO DATE: 05/2009
March 2009
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
As the global financial and economic crisis has grown increasingly dire--the deterioration just since the November U.S. election is breathtaking--market participants and policymakers alike have looked to three past crisis models as part of an intensifying search for ways out of the current crisis. First, the Great Depression of the 1930s is being examined ever more closely for possible lessons now that commentators have moved past an understandable reluctance to mention that experience as relevant to today's situation. Second, the Scandinavian financial crisis of the early 1990s, which included a proactive move toward bank nationalization by the Swedish government, is also widely discussed. Finally, many allusions have been made to the disquieting parallels between today's U.S. experience and that of Japan during its "lost decade" (1991-2001) of recession and deflation, especially after 1998.
Resource link: Inflation Is Better Than Deflation [PDF] - 59K