Must-Read: Paul Krugman: That 30s Show
Must-Read: As John Maynard Keynes wrote 80 years ago:
It is certain that the world will not much longer tolerate the unemployment which, apart from brief intervals of excitement, is associated… with present-day capitalistic individualism. But it may be possible by a right analysis of the problem to cure the disease while preserving efficiency and freedom…
But not with European orthodox policymakers and establishment elites who appear clueless with respect to what the real stakes are here:
: That 30s Show: “A few years ago de Bromhead, Eichengreen, and O’Rourke looked…
…at the determinants of right-wing extremism in the 1930s. They found…
what mattered was not the current growth of the economy but cumulative growth or, more to the point, the depth of the cumulative recession. One year of contraction was not enough to significantly boost extremism, in other words, but a depression that persisted for years was.
How’s Europe doing?… And now the [French] National Front has scored a first-place finish in regional elections…. Economics isn’t the only factor; immigration, refugees, and terrorism play into the mix. But Europe’s underperformance is slowly eroding the legitimacy, not just of the European project, but of the open society itself…
(2012): Right-Wing Political Extremism in the Great Depression: “The enduring global crisis is giving rise to fears that economic hard times will feed political extremism…
…as it did in the 1930s…. The danger… is greatest in countries with relatively recent histories of democracy, with existing right-wing extremist parties, and with electoral systems that create low hurdles to parliamentary representation of new parties. But above all, it is greatest where depressed economic conditions are allowed to persist.