End This Depression Now!

Paul Krugman
The central message of all this work is that this doesnt have to be happening.

Paul Krugman is a Nobel prize-winning American economist born in 1953. He also writes a column in The New York Times and teaches economics and foreign affairs at Princeton University. Additionally, he colaborates with the magazines Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review and Scientific American. Paul Krugmans End This Depression Now! (2012) addresses the issue of the crisis in which The United States and many other countries have sunk a crash that is now entering its fifth year of existance and still doesnt to be ending any time soon. The crisis of 2008 was and still is the subject of many books but this work is different than most because its trying to answer a very difficult question. Whereas most of the literature that approached the subject of the crisis was attempting to find out what caused this situation and who were the culprits, Krugman is raising the question How can we fix this?. Human history is full of disasters floods, famine, plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis. What makes this crisis to be so terrible is the fact that we can end it, that none of this has to happen. ... we have suddenly become poorer yet neither our resources nor our knowledge have been impaired, so where this sudden poverty come from? ... Nations rich in resources, talent, and knowledgeall the ingredients for prosperity and a decent standard of living for allremain in a state of intense pain. Krugman states that during the Great Depression, the government officials had an excuse: no one really understood what was trully happening and, as a result, they didnt know how to handle the situation. However, todays leaders dont have that excuse anymore. They have both the proper knowledge and the tools necessary to end this suffering. The premise of this work has its roots in Keynesian analysis of a prolonged recession and liquidity trap. The main idea is that there is a lack of demand in the economy which has led to higher unemployment, lower economic growth and growing deficit Keynes wrote

that the boom, not the slump, is the time for austerity. Now, as I argue in my forthcoming book*and show later in the data discussed in this articleis the time for the government to spend more until the private sector is ready to carry the economy forward again. Krugman proposes that economic growth should be a priority even though we might have to tolerate a higher inflation rate. Also, in order that government investment to be able to provide an economic stimulus, we should have higher short-term government debt. Another way to emerge from this crisis Krugman states is to boost the renewable energy sector and incentivize energy efficiency upgrades using environmental regulations. In the last chapter Krugman turns to politics and gives some advice to President Obama: The experience of Obamas first term suggests that not talking about jobs simply because you dont think you can pass job-creation legislation doesnt work even as a political strategy. On the other hand, hammering on the need for job creation can be good politics, and it can put enough pressure on the other side to bring about better policy too. Or to put it more simply, there is no reason not to tell the truth about this depression. Through this book Paul Krugman launches a manifest, urging us to return to fundamental and simple values. He has an imperative message for all of us who had to suffer through this crisis a quick, strong recovery is just one step away, if our leaders can find the intellectual clarity and political will to end this depression now. It is a call for reality connected policies, for action, truth, knowledge and courage. Greed, austerity measures and political pull should not stand in the way of our leaders.