Defending the Faith

P.D. Jonson, Great Crises of Capitalism (Connor Court, 2011), 322 pages, $29.95. 

Many readers of Quadrant will already be familiar with Dr P.D. Jonson. A former Chief Economist of the Reserve Bank of Australia, now a corporate director, Jonson is also the eponymous founder of the Henry Thornton website, which hosts commentary on economics, politics and current events from a broad spectrum of liberal opinion. Perhaps Jonson’s principal claim to significance was his role in persuading Paul Keating to float the dollar, a defining moment in the history of Australia.

In his current book, Great Crises of Capitalism, Jonson offers a rapid-paced summary of many of the major economic crises of modern capitalism, using these as a point of departure for a review of monetary theory and policy from the perspective of a former insider now ensconced in the private sector. All the expected crises are here: the South Sea and Mississippi bubbles, the Dutch tulip mania, the land booms in Melbourne…