Tuesday, March 14, 2023 — The issues facing the U.S. economy in 2023 are very different from those it faced in its last crisis in 2008. Back then we were dealing with collapsing banks and plunging demand; these days the big problem has seemed to be inflation, driven by too much demand relative to the available supply.
If there is one thing almost all observers of the economic scene have agreed about, it is that the issues facing the U.S. economy in 2023 are very different from those it faced in its last crisis, in 2008.
Back then, we were dealing with collapsing banks and plunging demand; these days, banking has been a back-burner issue and the big problem has seemed to be inflation, driven by too much demand relative to the available supply.
Oh, there were some echoes of past follies, because there always are. Hype springs eternal; the crypto cult shares some obvious features with the rise and fall of subprime mortgages, with people lured into complex financial arrangements they don’t understand. But nobody expected a repeat of those frightening weeks when the bottom seemed to be falling out of the world financial system.
