January 6, 2009

At Annual Conclave, Economists Try to Make Sense of the Financial Meltdown

By David Glenn

San Francisco

The annual meeting of the American Economic Association here this weekend was—no surprise—filled with anxious and sometimes remorseful talk about the global financial turmoil. Few scholars here said they expect the crisis to be as severe as the Great Depression, but a substantial number said the United States might be entering a long period of stagnation, just as Japan did around 1990.

During a packed-to-the-gills session on Saturday titled "Recent Financial Crises," Alan

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