In a guest article, Christina Romer says policymakers must learn from the errors that prolonged the Depression

摘要

At a recent congressional hearing I cau-tiously noted some "glimmers of hope" that the economy could stabilise and perhaps start to rebound later in the year. I was asked if this meant that we should cancel much of the remaining spending in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I responded that the expected recovery was both months away and predicated on Recovery Act spending ramping up greatly. Only later did it hit me that I should have told the story of 1937. The recovery from the Depression is often described as slow because America did not return to full employment until after the outbreak of the second world war.