Stiglitz: The economic consequences of Mr. Bush

John Maynard Keynes wrote "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" shortly after resigning from the British team negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. That treaty set the reparations requirements from the losers of World War I. In that short book, he correctly identified the consequences of the economic vise imposed by the allied victors on Germany. The consequences? Impossible economic contradictions, social unrest and a fertile field for the kind of desperation that fueled the Third Reich.

Keynes also wrote a shorter piece later, "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill," pointing out the dreadful consequences of the latter's insistence on a macho currency regime.

Now we have Joseph Stiglitz and "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush," in Vanity Fair. This is a well-deserved excoriation of the performance of the president since taking office. The consequences are grim. Stiglitz is the best economist practicing today. Read it.