The Great War of 1914-18 constituted a major rupture for the economies of Europe in several respects. It marked the end of almost a century of uninterrupted economic growth. It ended a long period of near-universal currency stability, and set in motion a painful process of de-globalisation. It...

[...]We begin by discussing the so-called first generation ofmodels, in which crises are viewed in the literature as theunavoidable result of unsustainable policies or fundamentalimbalances. Next, we survey the literature on the secondgeneration of models, which highlights the possibility of...

Daß die Sowjetunion zusammenbrechen und Deutschland wieder vereint werden würde, hat vor1989 eigentlich niemand geglaubt. Das Buch des russischen Dissidenten Amalrik "Kann dieSowjetunion das Jahr 1984 überleben" wurde ähnlich wie Weltuntergangsprognosen religiöserSekten belächelt, obgleich...

In this essay I review Sylvia Nasar’s long awaited new history of economics, Grand Pursuit. Idescribe how the book is an economic history of the period from 1850-1950, withdistinguished economists’ stories inserted in appropriate places. Nasar’s goal is to show howeconomists work, but also...