[Winniesboy]

A two-year-old story. Might have been more interesting if it had looked at what Osborne has actually done about the debt since he became Chancellor.

[neverdem]

A two-year-old story. Might have been more interesting if it had looked at what Osborne has actually done about the debt since he became Chancellor.

You missed the point. That could be my fault. I should have made it more emphatic.

But the closest parallel to the present circumstance, which they call 'the Great Contraction,' is the Great Depression of the 1930s – which was much worse.

There was a load of bad debt behind the Great Depression according to Reinhart and Rogoff, just like all the bad debt from the housing bubble. It was caused by excess credit. Financial crises are a different kind of animal. Keynesian policies were created for the run of the mill recession caused by excess production.