Through the Looking Glass

It is interesting when professors use their current course as a tool to comment on the great events of current affairs. Here is Brad DeLong giving an economics lecture commenting on:

• Clever political handlers appointing a Vice President for short term electoral reasons. (Think Sarah Palin, but presented in terms of Teddy Roosevelt who ascended to the presidency due to the assassination of McKinley.)
• How to handle a banking failure and a stock market panic. (Think current crisis, but presented as a series of historical precedents.)

This lecture is well worth listening to. This is his Oct 8, 2008 lecture on "The Coming of the Great Depression". Interestingly DeLong finds his precedents starting with 1793 and lots and lots in the 19th century.

Here's the cartoon that DeLong mentions...