Author: David Vines, Oxford University and ANU

After the Great Depression, US policymakers lost their nerve, and embarked upon fiscal consolidation.

They tipped the US, and the world, back into recession in 1937-38. The resulting problem was only resolved by the onset of World War II. Read more…

Author: David Vines, Oxford University

The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, and the financial crises in Russia and in Argentina, all happened in emerging-market economies. Little did we think that the next sovereign debt crisis would be in an advanced country, or even in Europe. These earlier crises taught us three crucial things. Understanding them is vital to dealing with the Greek crisis.

First, the Asian financial crisis showed that the way for a country to recover from a financial crisis is to devalue its currency – to a very large extent– and then to go for export-led growth. We learned this from Thailand, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. Read more…