Paul Krugman is one of those individuals that people either really love or really hate. Although I'm not a Keynesian and therefore rarely have interest in reading Keynesian authors' thoughts on economic crises, my curiosity got the better of me.
Mr. Krugman has an excellent writing style for an economist (i.e. he is concise and easily understood). His examples clearly depict his Keynesian approach to economic matters, helping the reader correlate them to real world phenomena. At one point in the book, he clearly explains to the reader what he means by "depression economics" (i.e. S > I) and what to do about it (your typical Keynesian cocktail to stimulate aggregate demand).
Mr. Krugman's examples in the 1990's were highly instructive, even if I analyzed them coming from a completely different logical framework. He presents the facts and plenty of empirical evidence to explain the troubles in Asia during the 1990's. I actually came away with a better understanding of what caused the problems in those countries (even if I didn't arrive at the same conclusions as Mr. Krugman).
So why not 5 stars? 2 reasons. 1) Other reviewers have mentioned it: references. It was impossible to verify anything in this book. 2) Mr. Krugman spent a few lines critiquing what he saw as "conservative" views of the crisis. In my opinion, this is simply not enough and diminished his credibility.Get more detail about The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.
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