The Lessons of the Great Depression

Five Books ^ | April 5, 2010 | Robert Barro

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Robert Barro is a professor of economics at Harvard, and a commentator for The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. His critique of the Obama stimulus package provoked a sharp attack from Paul Krugman in The New York Times, which brought a spirited response from Barro. Basing his arguments on his empirical work, Barro takes issue with some common assumptions about the Great Depression, and how America got out of it.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Not all Harvard Professors are idiots.

So are you not a fan of what Obama is doing?

I think the stimulus package was very stupid; it was awful. It’s just a tremendous waste of money and it’s going to cause some trouble in terms of a bigger public debt; it’s just wasting resources.

[Gaffer]

There is a stark difference between the America of the Depression and today’s America of the Coming Great Depression. It hinges mainly on the quality of its citizens. Far too big of a portion of our citizenry and just plain entitlement-minded loafers and leeches. We won’t recover from that unless we reduce their rolls through actually making them earn a living.

[AZLiberty]

We won’t recover from that unless we reduce their rolls through actually making them earn a living.

Due to the past failures of our education system, many of them are incapable of making a living.

[mywholebodyisaweapon]

I was surprised when Krugman got the Nobel instead of Barro.

Barro has been very deserving of the award for a very long time.

Krugman used to be an economist, back in the 1970s, before his brain rotted away.