UCLA Economist Lee Ohanian Explains the "Bailout Puzzle"

UCLA economist Lee E. Ohanian, coauthor of a startling new paper arguing that the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression by about seven years, talked with reason.tv about the past six weeks of apparent economic crisis and the government's bewildering bailout response.

Ohanian's main concern, and one that is never sufficiently appreciated: "Periods of crisis often beget bad policies."

Approximately seven minutes. Interview conducted by Justin Keppler and shot by Alex Manning. Click below to view. Go here for embed code.

For more reason print and video coverage of the bailout, go here.

Comments

[John Payne]

I'm not sure a paper from 2004 counts as new, and it really wasn't all that startling at the time....well, maybe for non-libertarians, but that's been pretty orthodox belief in these parts for a long while.

[anon]

That's Ohanian not Ohianian.

[Craig]

For those of us who read LewRockwell.com regularly, the only thing startling about his paper is that someone published it.

[The Leader of the Free World]

I don't care what some guy on a college campus says.

[DannyK]

Amity Schlaes, call your office, this dude is trying to steal your gimmick.

[SOFL Hockey Fan]

Mr. Ohianian is wrong, wrong, wrong! The stock market crash in October, 1929 caused the Great Depression. It lasted until 1939 when it was ended by FDR's "New Deal" policies. That is what I was taught through out my public school education.

[Francisco Torres]

UCLA economist Lee E. Ohanian, coauthor of a startling new paper arguing that the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression by about seven years[...]

Nooooooo, you think???

UCLA economist Lee E. Ohanian invents black thread, salt shakers, the wheel, discovers warm water and that the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

Well, he may have discovered all those things. But the real question is, what did Bush and Paulson discover?

Why did the government do this at all? Because what he's saying is the same message I heard right up to the "crisis". The economists were saying everything is basically okay.

The Left, however, has been predicting economic gloom and doom for quite a while.

There's only one thing I can think of. It was a communist plot to sink McCain's run for the White House. And this time the communists won.

Oh wait, we ran out of communists a few years back didn't we? Well maybe it was a terrorist plot.

I, for one, am thoroughly terrorized at the prospects of either McCain or Obama being president. I mean geez, as if that wasn't terrorizing enough. These terrorist plotters have absolutely no mercy.

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