Krugman: Fed Can't Save Us from Great Depression II

Hunter gatherers moved to farming ,then industrialization,then to service based economy.In todays capitalist world revolving on fiat currency everyone wants to be the financial services leader.... productivity gains by technology and automation help the second tier countires develop.....but what happens once it has gone awry?...Is there a simply new leader or another evolution?

The USA is well on its way to becoming a Banana Republic. Eventual high inflation and valueless paper currency will lead to the introduction of new currency and years of near-poverty for the majority. Anyway, there's always Hollywood.

It is time that country returned to its roots- We need to honor work with our tax code, we need to value the middle class. What sets us apart from almost every other developed nation- the existence of the Middle Class. That has been the backbone of our country and government has taken it for granted for the past 20 years. This is evidenced by the slow erosion of middle class friendly legislation. Earned income that yes, actually produces something, is taxed at the highest rates, yes higher than capital gains, manufacturing jobs exported to foreign countries, a healthcare system that destroys families.... Need I go on? We have to demonstrate that we value the middle class by doing what is necessary to facilitate its very existence.

Krugman is a Socialist and wants trillions of your money to be re-distributed. Opinions are like aholes and no one has any idea how things will turn out.

The problem with economics in the US is a lot simpler than we think. It is actually quite simple "supply-side economics" and deregulation are a fallacy. The US government bails out the economy in a cyclical manner (great depression, savings and loans, recent credit collapse) with many smaller bail outs in between. The private industry it is not the solution to our problems!!! it is just a mirage. At the end of the day it is the US Gov. via tax payers that makes everything possible but we have been brainwashed by supply-siders. The Bush tax policy were supposed to generate millions of jobs, well in 8 years of supply-side reign 5 million jobs were created compare that with Clintons tax policy demand-side economics 23 million jobs were created in the same period of time. Not to mention that we had a war in our hands (wars good for the economy) and Bush and the supply-siders have been proven DEAD WRONG. These are real and factual results not theories, shame on you Harvard and the other institutiuons that teach the supply-side economics as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

the only thing that will work is a DIRECT consumer stimulus plan......... every american over 18 should get $500,000........there are 310 million americans.....and this plan would cost so much less ....do the same thing in 2010.....the economy would take off........

Maybe a lot of what has happened, needn't have happened. Maybe if our government, through its " Rumpelstiltskin " like agencies within, had been doing their jobs for the American People/ Investors; We wouldn't be in quite the dire straights that we find ourselves today. Makes one wonder if anyone is really watching our Nuclear stock piles. Was it really incompetence, complacency or complicity ?

We NEED affordable ENERGY 'Made in USA' ! So the Government needs to invest in Reactors & FORCE the car industry to build Fuel Cell vehicles N O W ! That way we don't continue to actually finance despotic oil producing regimes & will be able to COMPETE once more in the global business arena! Yes??!!

Why bother with prudence? No matter what, if we get Obama's stimulus plan, no matter the size, and still get a depression or a worse recession not quite a depression, they'll conclude the stimulus plan wasn't big enough or fast enough. If we avoid a depression, the bill will come due somewhere down the line when the fiscal stimulus bubble pops.

The democrats believe they can spend their way out of this, what a joke! They do not have a clue and now with Nancy, Harry and Barry in charge we are really screwed. The more they spend the longer this depression will last, people need to spend within their means, and so does the govererment. This is what got us into this mess.

The democrats believe they can spend their way out of this, what a joke! They do not have a clue and now with Nancy, Harry and Barry in charge we are really screwed. The more they spend the longer this depression will last, people need to spend within their means, and so does the govererment. This is what got us into this mess.

Residential real estate won't be back at 2006 levels for at least another decade and nothing the government does will change that. They can lower rates all they want but it's just pushing on a string. Next will come commercial real estate. Ever wonder how all those crappy little stores in strip malls stay in business? Well, they won't. Wonder why banks aren't lending to small business? Have you ever met the typical small business owner? Most are delusional about their prospects. Glad I don't have children. I'm afraid things are going to be worse than most people are prepared for. I hear some people talking as if we're almost through it and I don't think this has even really started yet.

Krugman is an idiot! He has not done his homework and is just repeating everyone else saying the government needs to spend money to get us out of this mess. I agree with fizmath, both Great Depressions were created by the government but for different reasons. The first was cause by the government not playing by the gold standard rules and not providing liquidity to the economy. The second was caused by making the price of money (low interest rates) too cheap for too long encouraging people to take equity out of their houses and put money into the economy (same as inflation). Now that the wealth is gone we are suffering from a depression. No way to get around that pain and suffering. It is not a liquidity problem but a death spiral of layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies... No about of free money is going to increase the trust the bank must have in loaning money to someone. Everybody is sitting on cash too scared to do anything. Obama's New Deal is only going to borrow a trillion dollars and give it away on every pork barrel project that comes down the pike. Then we'll be jobless and broke. Then the inflation pump will start cranking, devaluing the debt and people's savings. The only way out of this mess is DRASTIC cuts in government spending and tax cuts to people who pay taxes (not to people who don't pay taxes). Like that will ever happen! We are doomed. Remember, remember the 5th of November!

The democrats believe they can spend their way out of this, what a joke! They do not have a clue and now with Nancy, Harry and Barry in charge we are really screwed. The more they spend the longer this depression will last, people need to spend within their means, and so does the govererment. This is what got us into this mess.

The democrats believe they can spend their way out of this, what a joke! They do not have a clue and now with Nancy, Harry and Barry in charge we are really screwed. The more they spend the longer this depression will last, people need to spend within their means, and so does the government. This is what got us into this mess.

Ask 50 different Economists their opinion and you'll get 50 different answers. "Frantic government spending" means only one thing: Socialism. No thanks! I'd rather live in a tent than give up my individual rights and freedoms! Great Depression 2?...Bring it on!!

Aaron and Henry, I have noticed on several of your interviews a lady talking quite loudly in the background. Can’t you control that? Content of your interviews are great!

$500 "tax cuts" for those who don't pay taxes...isn't that welfare? Finally, every Democrat's dream to put the entire country on welfare! We're nationalizing industries, paying people back who don't pay in, spending on things (like roads, bridges, etc) that don't generate income or lead to growth. These ideas (I hesitate to call them that) will certainly make things worse. What's wrong with giving the people who create jobs, create incentives for investment and grow businesses the freedom and capital to keep doing what we do best? ...And conversely what the government does worst. What will Chairman Mao-bama think of next?

File this under "more Krugman Krap." He predicted a depression in 2001 and high off his mistaken selection by the Nobel committee, he's at it again. What happens next is dependent on policy and, from what Obama appears to be proposing since he was elected, the policy looks like the right steps. If Obama proved anything during his campaign it was that he's a fast learner. Maybe he has learned that carbon caps, network neutrality and higher taxes on the formation of capital are dumb - let's hope so.

Spending is not the end-all of our problem, only job creation is the way out of this problem. Manufacturing left the US because of money and for no other reason. Some solutions are to provide what the rest of the world does: universal health care, subsidies to manufacturing (Toyota is heavily subsidized) tax breaks, heavy tariffs on imports. We are the only civilized country that does NOT use tariffs. No wonder we failed.