Krugman: That 1937 Feeling

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Here’s what’s coming in economic news: The next employment report could show the economy adding jobs for the first time in two years.  The next G.D.P. report is likely to show solid growth in late 2009.  There will be lots of bullish commentary — and the calls we’re already hearing for an end to stimulus, for reversing the steps the government and the Federal Reserve took to prop up the economy, will grow even louder.

But if those calls are heeded, we’ll be repeating the great mistake of 1937, when the Fed and the Roosevelt administration decided that the Great Depression was over, that it was time for the economy to throw away its crutches.  Spending was cut back, monetary policy was tightened — and the economy promptly plunged back into the depths.

– Paul Krugman, “That 1937 Feeling”, The New York Times, January 4

Also see: “Jubak: Will US Repeat Mistakes of 1937?”, Top Gun FP, September 23, 2009

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