Krugman on "The Austerity Debacle"
is a must read this morning. He begins his Monday column like this:
Last week the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a British think tank, released a startling chart comparing the current slump with past recessions and recoveries. It turns out that by one important measure — changes in real G.D.P. since the recession began — Britain is doing worse this time than it did during the Great Depression. Four years into the Depression, British G.D.P. had regained its previous peak; four years after the Great Recession began, Britain is nowhere close to regaining its lost ground.
He immediately notes that Spain and Italy, two more of Europe's big-five economies (the others being Germany and France) are also doing worse than the 1930s.
When I read that, I immediately made another connection - because in the 1930's both Italy and Spain turned Fascist.
Krugman considers what has happened "a stunning failure of policy" that unfortunately does not seem to be getting through to many policy makers in this country.
Please keep reading.