Americans have been whipsawed by devastating cycles of boom and bust over the past three decades. Now some at the Federal Reserve want us to go through it again, Matthew Klein of Bloomberg writes in his latest opinion piece.

One might think that the Fed has learned something from previous experiences. Think again.

We now have extensive evidence that the wanton borrowing that fueled the recent housing bubble made the economy vulnerable to the devastating downturn the U.S. endured. This shouldn’t have been surprising. After studying every business cycle experienced by 14 rich countries since 1870, Oscar Jorda, Moritz Schularick and Alan Taylor found that excessive private credit growth systematically predicts deeper downturns and slower recoveries.