“The government policy response to the collapse, however, has been much more aggressive.”
Well, we don’t have the Smoot-Hawley tariff this time around, which is a plus.
“Thus, we will soon collectively learn whether the economic historians are right that the original Great Depression was caused by “policy errors” after the collapse...or whether, as some suspect, there is simply no way to avoid catastrophe after a financial bubble the size of the one we just had.”
No, we won’t. Empirical evidence will never settle economic questions. If they did, things like the world’s failure to get out of the Great Depression and the collapse of the Soviet Empire would have put a dent in socialists’ minds by now.