Paul Krugman: End This Depression Now

I was listening to an interview on my DVR that was of Paul Krugman being interviewed by Fareed Zacharia in regard to his new book "End this Depression Now!" on Fareed Zacharia GPS on CNN TV in the morning the Sunday before last. I like listening to Fareed Zacharia and Wolf Blitzer because they are more middle of the road and fairly balanced in their reporting. However, if you want more partisan points of view you have to go to MSNBC on the left and Fox News on the right.

The Case against Austerity: What we have actually had is unprecedented cuts. Krugman says, "Rehire police officers, firemen and other needed civil service personnel nationwide as well as public school teachers worldwide."

Krugman says, "This isn't just something I'm saying. We can look at history to see what kinds of debt burdens that countries have carried. For example, Britain has had public debt burden well over 100% of GDP for most of the 20th Century. Britain had a higher debt ratio than it does now or that the United States does now in relation to GDP. Japan has debt levels that are astronomical and people have been predicting a crisis year after year but so far that crisis has not occurred.

The crisis can only come if a country is not borrowing in it's own currency. For example, the Federal Reserve can always print more money and even though that might cause a devaluation of the dollar at some point this in itself won't create a collapse within that monetary system but only a devaluation within that system. Also, people living within that system wouldn't notice the difference unless they are traveling to other countries with other currencies or buying products from other countries with different currencies.

Another point that he makes is that we actually have long term harm going on in our country right now by having over 4 million people who have been out of work for 1 year or more. A lot of these people likely will Never get back into the work force and this will hurt our long term growth. By having a whole cohort of college graduates that will never be able to find a job to make use of their skills you are crippling their economic future but also America's economic future. And these things are real costs right now being borne by millions of Americans of watching their economic lives and student loans go down the drain.

These are all REAL costs being born by real lives within American Society. Whereas Austerity is only theoretical and in a sense real but not as real as the real costs I have just outlined here in people's lives every day.

This was from Fareed Zacharia GPS CNN TV and aired on Sunday May 20th 2012 in the morning.