1. Skip to navigation   2. Skip to content   3. Skip to sidebar
The Ludwig von Mises Institute  Advancing Austrian Economics,
Liberty, and Peace  Advancing the scholarship of liberty in the
tradition of the Austrian School  Search Mises.org  Why I Expect
Serious Stagflation  Mises Daily: Monday, June 15, 2009 by
When doing interviews for my new book on the Great Depression, a
natural question comes up: will the present crisis turn out as
bad as the 1930s?  My standard answer is typical for an
economist: "yes and no." On the one hand, there were very
specific reasons that unemployment broke 25 percent in 1933, and
we don't have those factors in place today. So I don't think the
official unemployment rate will get anywhere near that
catastrophic level, though it could very well come in at the #2
spot in US economic history.  However, even though unemployment
rates will not be as severe, I still predict that we are in
store for a miserable decade of economic stagnation. Given all
of the huge assaults of the f