Recession Prevention Handbook: Eleven Case Studies, 1948-2007

This text consists of eleven case studies of US economic recessions from 1948 to 2009. The case studies look at the performance of the economy and the actions taken by the Federal Reserve, the president, and Congress during the expansion period before the onset of each recession, as well as certain other key factors such as the Vietnam War's impact on the recession of 1969-70 or the Iranian Revolution's impact on the recession of 1980. The author finds "persistent failures over the last sixty-two years of the Federal Reserve and the president to forecast, or to acknowledge the possibility of a future recession; to deal appropriately with actual inflation or a perceived potential future inflation, and to Congress's weak oversight of the Federal Reserve." He argues that the Federal Reserve should switch focus on excessive demand as the cause of inflation to non-demand factors such as the psychology of inflationary expectations by businesses and workers, outsized speculation in the asset prices of stock equities and houses, and supply shocks causing temporary shortages of certain materials. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)