Economists Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O’Rourke have been comparing the downturn in the 1930s to the recent macro debacle in charts and words and offer a fresh update. The quick summary is that we’re doing better in the 21st century, but the recovery seems to be struggling. “While industrial production and trade recovered much more quickly than during the Great Depression,” they write, “both series now appear to be slowing down.” What does it mean? “It suggests that, as St Augustine would have said had he been managing director of the IMF, there is a case for additional fiscal consolidation and monetary normalisation, but not yet.”