Friday, April 10, 2009

Bring Back the Gray Flannel Suit

"The banking industry that emerged from that collapse was tightly regulated, far less colorful than it had been before the Depression, and far less lucrative for those who ran it. Banking became boring, partly because bankers were so conservative about lending: Household debt, which had fallen sharply as a percentage of G.D.P. during the Depression and World War II, stayed far below pre-1930s levels.
"Strange to say, this era of boring banking was also an era of spectacular economic progress for most Americans."

Paul Krugman argues in The New York Times for a return of the stodgy banks of the mid twentieth century.

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