Lakshman Achuthan and Anirvan Banerji, Forbes

The 2008 recession guarantees many months of job losses that
will boost foreclosures and feed the credit crisis. But if fiscal stimulus had
reached consumers quickly, it would have forestalled a recession, helping to
stabilize the housing market. Such a soft landing would have bought some
breathing room in which to resolve the credit crisis until the lagged effect of
monetary policy kicked in.

There is a raging debate about how the economy got into
recession, and who is to blame. Many have concluded that the housing and credit
bubbles guaranteed recession. But because this debate will influence policy for
the next economic cycle, the right lessons must be learned from this series of
unfortunate events.

An essential point is being overlooked--that this
recession was actually avoidable as recently as several weeks ago.