Krugman Calls It a Depression

The Nobel Prize-winning economist writes in his New York Times column Sunday that even though “it’s not a full replay of the Great Depression,” people continue to suffer without work and we should call the thing by its name.

The economy isn’t the only area where Krugman sees the world backsliding into the darkest recesses of the 20th century. Looking to Europe, the columnist finds nationalist, racist, authoritarian parties gaining political power.

Paul Krugman in The New York Times:

It’s time to start calling the current situation what it is: a depression. True, it’s not a full replay of the Great Depression, but that’s cold comfort. Unemployment in both America and Europe remains disastrously high. Leaders and institutions are increasingly discredited. And democratic values are under siege.

On that last point, I am not being alarmist. On the political as on the economic front it’s important not to fall into the “not as bad as” trap. High unemployment isn’t O.K. just because it hasn’t hit 1933 levels; ominous political trends shouldn’t be dismissed just because there’s no Hitler in sight.

Read more

April and Randy (CC-BY-ND)

A bread line is pictured in sculpture at the FDR memorial in Washington.