In his column for Livemint, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha remembers Orwell and J. B. Priestley's writings and discusses Prof. Barry Eichengreen's views about the impact on growth of the current economic crisis. 

Excerpt below:

"At the cost of simplifying the message, Orwell could be seen to be writing on the first type of economic change, while Priestley could be seen to be writing of the second variant. Orwell focused on the immense pain in the industrial towns of North England as the British economic system tottered close to the edge. Priestley did not turn a blind eye to the devastation that Orwell saw, but also detected new possibilities.

Some of these themes came back to me when I read a recent essay by Barry Eichengreen, one of the finest macroeconomic historians in our times. Eichengreen argues that the ongoing economic crisis will affect the ability of economies to grow in four ways—three negative and one positive."

Read the full article here