Paul Krugman: Austerity Is So Wrong!

• In a new book, End This Depression Now!, Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman says the current economic problems can be fixed both more easily and more quickly than anyone imagines. But politicians’ desire to slash spending is deeply destructive, and he details why austerity is so appealing even to Very Serious People—and why it’s such a bad idea.
• Scott Walker's Austerity Agenda Yields 'Worst Job Losses in US'
• Our Best Minds Are Failing Us

Paul Krugman, Daily Beast

In the scary months that followed the fall of Lehman Brothers<http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/09/13/left-behind-by-lehman.h..., just about all major governments agreed that the sudden collapse of private spending had to be offset, and they turned to expansionary fiscal and monetary policy—spending more, taxing less, and printing lots of monetary base—in an effort to limit the damage. In so doing, they were following the advice of standard textbooks; more important, they were following the hard-earned lessons of the Great Depression.

But a funny thing happened in 2010: much of the world’s policy elite—the bankers and financial officials who define conventional wisdom—decided to throw out the textbooks and the lessons of history, and declare that down is up. That is, it quite suddenly became the fashion to call for spending cuts, tax hikes, and even higher interest rates even in the face of mass unemployment.

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Related:

Scott Walker's Austerity Agenda Yields 'Worst Job Losses in US', John Nichols, The Nation

• Wisconsin is dead last in job growth. Don't listen to Scott Walker if you want to get jobs in your state.
• Scott Walker's Austerity Agenda Is Losing
• Expose the Hoax! Save Social Security and Medicare!

Our Best Minds Are Failing Us, Michael Hirsh, Newsweek / Daily Beast
With America in deep trouble, our economists are AWOL, and our scientists are still off ‘financial engineering.’