The many questions posed by the performance of the world economy over the last three years suggest that by looking at the past we may find valuable lessons for the present and the future. Analyzing the similarities and differences between today’s grave economic crisis and the crash of 1929 can provide useful clues to what is happening in our uncertain world, and may help us avoid a decade of economic stagnation in these early years of the 21st century.

This book brings together the reflections of eminent authors on the Great Depression and the Great Recession. The economic historians explore yesterday’s experiences to shed new light on today’s – and tomorrow’s – while the economists analyze our present-day difficulties in the awareness that they are not entirely new, and that we can gain a better perspective on them by taking a step back in time.

Each chapter offers a new interpretation that can help us understand the current crisis and prepare ourselves better for future crises and their impact on income and employment.
This is the first book of its kind to be published in Spain, as well as breaking new ground in the approach it takes to the present world crisis and the scrutiny it applies to the problems of the Spanish economy.

It will find interested readers among scholarly observers of the present economic crisis, specialists in financial and banking systems and economic policymakers. Teaching professionals and enthusiasts of economic history will also find in it a rich source of considered information.