Nobel Prize-winning economist, author and influential columnist Paul Krugman will appear this Friday on St. Croix at Undercover Books & Gifts in Gallows Bay to read and discuss his latest book, "The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008."
Krugman’s latest oeuvre aims to show how today’s crisis parallels the events that caused the Great Depression—and explain what it will take to avoid catastrophe.
Most economists, to the extent that they think about the subject at all, regard the Great Depression of the 1930s as a gratuitous, unnecessary tragedy: if only Herbert Hoover hadn’t tried to balance the budget in the face of an economic slump, if only the Federal Reserve hadn’t defended the gold standard at the expense of the domestic economy, if only officials had rushed cash to threatened banks, then the stock market crash of 1929 would have led only to a garden-variety recession, soon forgotten.
And since economists and policymakers have learned their lesson … nothing like the Great Depression can ever happen again. Or can it?
In this major bestseller, Krugman warns that, like diseases that have become resistant to antibiotics, the economic maladies that caused the Great Depression have made a comeback. He lays bare the 2008 financial crisis–the greatest since the 1930s–tracing it to the failure of regulation to keep pace with an out-of-control financial system. He also tells us how to contain the crisis and turn around a world economy sliding into a deep recession.
Krugman has at least three jobs: professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and perhaps his best-known job, op-ed columnist for The New York Times.
In recognition of his influence, The Washington Monthly called him "the most important political columnist in America."
Krugman is the author or editor of 23 books and more than 200 professional journal articles, many of them on international trade and finance. In recognition of his work, he received the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association, an award given every two years to the top economist under the age of 40.
His most recent books include the aforementioned "Depression Economics" and a paperback edition of "The Conscience of A Liberal." His previous work, "The Great Unraveling," was highly praised and became a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback.
Krugman and his wife, Robin Wells, have recently collaborated on two college textbooks — "Microeconomics" published in 2004, and "Macroeconomics" published in 2005.
Krugman and his wife split their time between Princeton, N.J., and St. Croix. Krugman and Wells’ day-to-day life on the west end of St. Croix was the subject of a feature article in the March 1 issue of New Yorker magazine.
Krugman will appear at Undercover Books from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. this Friday.
