On the financial crisis & economic policy - Introduction
Name
Friedman-2010-On the financial cri.pdf
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383.34 KB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s) •
Solow, Robert M.
Friedman, Benjamin H.
Date Issued
October 2010
Journal
Daedalus
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
Friedman, Benjamin M., and Robert M. Solow. “On the financial crisis & economic policy - Introduction.” Daedalus 139.4 (2010): 5-8. © 2010 American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The financial meltdown of 2007 to 2009
was surely a great spectacle. Mighty
names toppled like that statue of Saddam
Hussein. Lehman Brothers, with a history
spanning a century-and-a-half, just disappeared.
Bear Stearns and even Merrill
Lynch–the same Merrill Lynch that had
taught generations of small investors to
be “bullish on America”–were sold off
at discounts suitable for used furniture.
AIG was rescued in the nick of time, but
only with $182 billion of U.S. government
assistance. Trillions of dollars of investors’
wealth simply evaporated. One
could think, “Oh, well, easy come, easy
go.” But still, trillions of dollars? It was a
spectacle all right, but why did it really
matter to the rest of us, who count ourselves
merely as citizens of the republic?
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_e_00037