toosm from the federal reserve in terms of helping the economy recover and has that hurt -- >> ken rogoff was a graduate schoolmate of mine. i played chess against him which was a big mistake. i enjoyed that book very much. i thought it was very informative. as you say, it makes the point that as an historical matter recoveries following financial crises tend to be relatively slow. now, what the book didn't really do, though, is give a full explanation of why that's the case. certainly part of it has to do with the problems in credit markets and my own research when i was in academia focused a great deal on the effects of problems in credit markets on recoveries. other aspects would include the effects of credit problems on areas like housing and so on, and we're seeing all that, of course, in our economy. with that said, another possible explanation for the slow recovery from financial crises might be that policy responses were not adequate. that they -- that the recapitalization of the banking system, the restoration of credit flows and monetary and fiscal policies were not sufficient t

carmen rinehart and ken rogoff, both distinguished and respected economists, and others who have studied the situation, laying out the current status of our fiscal situation and the economic plight that it is putting our country into. one of the things that they've said, and i think the reason that i'm on the floor this evening, is that unless we address all the aspects of both dealing with our -- in dealing with our fiscal crisis, both in terms of excessive spending that's taking place and has taken place over the last civil years, but also -- last several years, but also components for growth, we are not going to successfully address this. we not only have to look at the spending which has accelerated dramatically in the last few years and the amount of deficit we're accumulating every year and the amount of debt that we're rolling up, but we also have to look at ways in which, in addressing that by cutting spending, we can also spur the economy to growth. and the component for growth pretty much falls along the lines of tax reform. senator wyden had worked for two years with former se

toosm from the federal reserve in terms of helping the economy recover and has that hurt -- >> ken rogoff was a graduate schoolmate of mine. i played chess against him which was a big mistake. i enjoyed that book very much. i thought it was very informative. as you say, it makes the point that as an historical matter recoveries following financial crises tend to be relatively slow. now, what the book didn't really do, though, is give a full explanation of why that's the case. certainly part of it has to do with the problems in credit markets and my own research when i was in academia focused a great deal on the effects of problems in credit markets on recoveries. other aspects would include the effects of credit problems on areas like housing and so on, and we're seeing all that, of course, in our economy. with that said, another possible explanation for the slow recovery from financial crises might be that policy responses were not adequate. that they -- that the recapitalization of the banking system, the restoration of credit flows and monetary and fiscal policies were not sufficient t

toosm from the federal reserve in terms of helping the economy recover and has that hurt -- >> ken rogoff was a graduate schoolmate of mine. i played chess against him which was a big mistake. i enjoyed that book very much. i thought it was very informative. as you say, it makes the point that as an historical matter recoveries following financial crises tend to be relatively slow. now, what the book didn't really do, though, is give a full explanation of why that's the case. certainly part of it has to do with the problems in credit markets and my own research when i was in academia focused a great deal on the effects of problems in credit markets on recoveries. other aspects would include the effects of credit problems on areas like housing and so on, and we're seeing all that, of course, in our economy. with that said, another possible explanation for the slow recovery from financial crises might be that policy responses were not adequate. that they -- that the recapitalization of the banking system, the restoration of credit flows and monetary and fiscal policies were not sufficient t