The Biggest Economic Nonsense Since the Great Depression

Posted by Alan Reynolds

An otherwise interesting Washington Post front-pager on “What Went Wrong” claims the current situation “has erupted into the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression.”  On the contrary, that honor surely goes to 1980-82, with 1973-75 as a close runner-up.

This may indeed be the biggest postwar financial crisis, but that is a very different thing.

The biggest postwar financial crisis so far was the S&L collapse of the late 1980s, when nearly 3000 financial institutions were closed.  But the impact  of the S&L debacle on the real economy was minor at best (the economy grew by 2.9% a year during that “crisis”).  The stock market crash of 1987 inspired many hysterical predictions but no recession at all.

An economic crisis implies a deep and prolonged drop in real output and employment, not just another routine recession.  To describe current conditions as a worse economic crisis than 1980-82 is fanciful nonsense.

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