27 Oct 2011

People Draw Different Lessons From History

Economics, Federal Reserve, Krugman 2 Comments

Paul Krugman talking about the Europeans’ amazing reluctance to print as much money as he thinks they should:

The point here is that we have a couple of centuries’ experience with central banking, and that experience clearly shows that the lender of last resort function is crucial. The Federal Reserve basically was created after America had to rely on J.P. Morgan to fill that role in the panic of 1907, and it was recognized that one couldn’t always count on having a J.P. Morgan on hand when you needed one. (The Fed went on to fail to do its job in 1930-31, but that’s another story.)

I’m not even going to spoil that by coming up with analogies.

2 Responses to “People Draw Different Lessons From History”

  1. Papi says:
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    Dr. K can’t always count on having a Morgan when one needs one?

    There’s a stimulus for that.

  2. Marco says:
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    We’ll need a Dexter Morgan 🙂