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This article discusses, with wonderful historical anecdotes and statistics, what worked, and didn't, during the Great Depression and more recent, individual nations' economic crises worldwide; Green jobs; specific education programs that have worked; how health care inefficiencies play a huge role; how interest groups buy power over time and can cause economies to collapse; how the U.S. leads in some aspects of technology but meanwhile it has among the fewest per capita home internet connections.
It is the best, funnest read on today's economy and economics in general that I have seen on the net in months. It may not empower you to fully lift your head out of your hands but you might raise an eyebrow and think, "Hmm... well maybe there is some hope here... "