I was quoted in the New York Times yesterday, which is kind of fun. Many of my friends read the Times, and it’s a great way to make new friends, and enemies.    more »

We need to get a grip, people. This is not The Great Depression—The Sequel. Make no mistake, the economy is very bad, as rough as it has been since the early 1980s. But, despite what many are saying and writing, the recession that began in the winter of 2008 is not the Great Depression. Not even close. Employment, price levels, Gross Domestic Product, the stock market. Pick a data series, any data series, and you’ll get the same result: awful, for sure, but hardly 1929. CEA chair Christy Romer, a highly respected scholar of the Depression before joining the Obama Administration, put the current unpleasantness in context the other day at Brookings.    more »