Michael Hiltzik

MI Forum: Hall of Mirrors

Barry Eichengreen, Michael Hiltzik, Skip Reimer

Economist Barry Eichengreen joined Michael Hiltzik at the Milken Institute's January 2015 forum to analyze historical parallels between the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis in a discussion of his book *Hall of Mirrors*. Eichengreen argued that the Euro's structural flaws and the Federal Reserve's past policy errors, including the Lehman Brothers failure, created systemic vulnerabilities that Keynesian fiscal intervention successfully averted during previous depressions. The session concluded with warnings that prioritizing short-term stability over long-term structural reform risks precipitating a future financial collapse within the next eighty years.