Wisdom From The Great Depression

Next year, the University of California Press is bringing out a new edition of the late economist Charles Kindleberger's influential and illuminating book analyzing the great depression.

In World in Depression, 1929-1939, published in 1973, Kindleberger examined the history of international trade, finance and macroeconomics during the heart of the Great Depression. Anyone with an interest in such matters should welcome the new edition.

Kindleberger would doubtless, were he alive today, notice the alarming parallels between the decade about which he wrote and our own times. The similarities are not reassuring.

Economic historians Brad DeLong and Barry Eichengreen have written a new preface to the book. DeLong has posted the it on his blog here. The new introduction is well worth reading in its own right. Anyone reading the it who also follows international events cannot help but be concerned.

As one might expect of economists, the new preface focuses on economic processes.

I could not help but reflect, however, on the interaction between the political world of 1929-1939 and the economic world. Kindleberger focuses on the lack of international economic leadership. There was at least an equal failure of leadership in the sphere of international political relations.

I hope we are not in for a rerun.

Read the new preface!