WHY WASHINGTON CAN CONTAIN THIS RECESSION

摘要

Bad policy put the "Great" in the Great Depression. Protec-tionism, Hooverism, and a central bank that sat on its hands while markets seized up and banks failed ag-gravated an already grim situation. Government officials didn't understand how policy would affect the economy. Thankfully, the U.S. has learned from those and other less spectacular policy mistakes. That's why, bar-ring any further shock, this recession should be mild. Because of the sound policy decisions of the past decade, the U. S. now has an unprecedented reserve of policy resources to draw on. As a result, Washington has embarked on the most rapid and aggressive re-sponse to economic weakness in modern times.