We're Doomed Without Another Stimulus: Krugman

Voter backlash is about failure to lower unemployment

(NEWSER) - Paul Krugman doesn't buy the GOP conclusion that voters Tuesday rejected the Obama agenda. The election just showed that American voters are worried about their jobs, he writes, and this time next year, with unemployment still high, Democrats will likely regret not having been bolder on the economy when they had the chance. "Voters across America are in a bad mood, largely because of the still-grim economic situation. And when voters are feeling bad, they turn on whomever currently holds office." More»

(NEWSER) - When the economic crisis turned terrifying last winter, Washington finally got its act together and passed a massive stimulus package. But now, writes New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, the US faces a slower but more dangerous "jobless recovery" over the next few years and an "utterly terrifying" climate crisis decades out. Faced with these long-term dangers, the government is acting like the metaphorical "boiling frog"—unaware that it's slowly dying. More»

Obama's economic policy is falling behind the curve

(NEWSER) - Pundits are constantly complaining that Barack Obama’s stimulus is too big and too ambitious, but Paul Krugman has a different complaint: It’s too small. Obama’s promise that the bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs by 2010 “looks underwhelming to say the least,” given that the economy is already down 4.4 million jobs, and losing another 600,000 by the month. More»

President's hunger for bipartisan support led to disaster: Krugman

(NEWSER) - Even if the Obama stimulus package had been enacted in its original $800 billion form, writes Paul Krugman, it wouldn't have plugged the hole in the American economy. Yet the "centrists" who cut it down have taken out some of its best provisions, like aid for state governments, while leaving its most egregious items in. For the New York Times columnist, the final bill may produce "substantially more suffering"—and the president is to blame. More»

Only government can save us now: Krugman

(NEWSER) - For decades economists believed that a second Great Depression was impossible; all the Fed had to do, they said, is print more money. But as Paul Krugman writes, monetary policy has failed; despite "supplying liquidity like an engine crew trying to put out a five-alarm fire," credit remains elusive and the economy is tanking. For the New York Times columnist, only fiscal policy—that is, massive government spending—can stave off a repeat of the 1930s. More»