A nice think piece on what we should be teaching in economics principles classes, by a past master of the textbook-trade.
"Will the deep recession, which likely ended in late 2009, require a rethinking of economics, as did stagflation? Compared to other economic downturns of the past forty years, the current recession definitely stands out. Its probable 20-month duration is greater than the previous peak of 16 months (and the 40-year average of 11 months); its peak unemployment of 10.2 percent was exceeded only by the 10.8 percent of 1981-82 (The 40-year average was 7.8 percent); and the 4.1 percent loss of output well exceeds that of previous recessions. Moreover, it follows a long period of economic growth, interrupted by extremely mild recessions, dubbed “the Great Moderation.” The current recession, despite its severity, pales in comparison to the Great Depression with its 25 percent unemployment rates and loss of a quarter of GDP. The threat of a repeat of this catastrophe was remote, although politicians could not resist invoking its image."
via What Paul Gregory is Writing About: Do We Need a New Economics 101?.
My take on this post here.
Apologies for the dead link above. So I can't mess it up, here's the url:
http://simonhalliday.blogspot.com/2010/09/do-we-need-new-economics-principles.html