"The recent financial crisis has demonstrated the dangers of ignoring the factors that led to previous crises, and the effectiveness of the policies designed to deal with them. Over time, these macroeconomic policies have evolved, oscillating between state intervention and a free-market...

In Designing US Economic Policy , W. Robert Brazelton analyzes the development of US economic policy in the aftermath of the Second World War. As the world struggled to recover from the massive wartime expenditure, it was essential that economic policy not repeat the mistakes of the prewar era...