The Global Financial Crisis: Lessons from History

What lessons from the Great Depression helped steer modern policymaker away from a repeat in the recent global financial crisis? What should they have remembered that might have prevented the devastating housing bust and the ensuing Great Recession? What lessons from history should have been employed after the crisis to deliver a better economic recovery in the U.S. and Europe?

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On January 14, the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy discussed these questions with economic historian Barry Eichengreen of the University of California, Berkeley. His new book Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses-and Misuses-of History (Oxford University Press) details the lessons that were remembered and those that were, unfortunately, forgotten. Following his presentation, David Lipton, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and Chris Brummer, a professor at Georgetown Law School with a specialty in international financial regulation, joined Hutchins Center Director David Wessel in conversation.

>>Read a blog post with highlights and clips from the event.