"End This Depression Now": Paul Krugman Urges Public Spending, Not Deficit Hysteria, to Save Economy

Democracy Now!


"Public spending is under assault from the United States to Europe in the name of fighting deficits. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman argues in his new book, "End This Depression Now!", that the hysteria over the deficit will constrain an economic recovery in a time of high unemployment and stagnating wages. "The economics is really easy," says Krugman, "If we were to spend more money at the government level, rehire the school teachers, firefighters, police officers who have been laid off in the last several years because of cutbacks, we would be a long way back toward full employment. ... Right now there’s just not enough spending. We need the government to step in and provide the demand we need ... We’ve had austerity in the face of a recession in a way that we’ve never had before since the 1930s. The results are clear — it is disastrous." Krugman writes about the economy as a columnist for the New York Times and is a Professor of Economics at Princeton University....."