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Hall of Mirrors
Book

Hall of Mirrors

The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses – and Misuses – of History

Barry Eichengreen
Oxford World’s Classics, 2015

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Editorial Rating

8

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Recommendation

Economist Barry Eichengreen presents an exhaustive study of the two great financial crises of the past century, the Great Depression and the Great Recession. From Federal Reserve rate cuts to housing bubbles to European currency crises, Eichengreen leads a comprehensive tour of two seminal periods. With the benefit of hindsight, he debunks a few popular myths. While plainly knowledgeable and a clear communicator, Eichengreen isn’t always the most helpful guide. Serious students of economics may already be familiar with much of the ground he covers, while lay readers could struggle to make sense of his sometimes-dense prose and jargony references to “macro-prudential policy” and “dissaving.” getAbstract recommends his substantive history to investors and policy makers who are conversant with these issues and who seek additional insight into markets, US history and economic policy.

Take-Aways

  • The bubbles leading up to the Great Depression and the Great Recession show striking similarities.
  • Both featured real estate frenzies and overheated stock market valuations.
  • Before both crashes, business leaders believed the market had vanquished volatility.

About the Author

Barry Eichengreen is a professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley. His previous books include Exorbitant Privilege and Golden Fetters.

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    M. F. 7 years ago
    The author seems to think that the new deal got the US out of the Great Depression.He suggests that the economy grew much faster because of all these programs.In comparison he implies that slow recovery under Obama resulted from failure of the Stimulus program because it was not big enough.Being a liberal economist he praise the new deal for getting US out of the Great Depression when the general consensus is that WW 2 created the recovery in production and jobs resulting in post war boom.Does he really want history to repeat itself with another world war.