Stimulus v. Cuts: Krugman and More

Economist Paul Krugman fires his salvos on the economic debate in Washington now – more stimulus spending or more austerity.

The big overriding debate in Washington right now is spending versus austerity. The economy is pausing at a scary point. Does it roll forward? Groan forward? Or roll back? Collapse?

The austerity crowd says rein in spending now to restore “confidence."   The “open-the-spigots” crowd says spend right now or risk disastrous depression.

The Keynesian spender-in-chief is Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. Today, he’s with us.

This Hour, On Point: we hear the latest on the raging debate in Washington, then bring in Paul Krugman, on the fate of the U.S. economy.

Guests:

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. He was also Senator McCain's economic adviser during his 2008 presidential campaign.

Sudeep Reddy, economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Bill Schneider, longtime CNN senior political analyst and now a senior fellow and resident scholar at “The Third Way,” a progressive think tank. He teaches public policy at George Mason University.

Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist. He's author of "The Conscience of a Liberal" and "The Return of Depression Economics."

More:

On a recent On Point segment, Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson renewed his on-going debate/feud with Paul Krugman over whether the U.S. needs to cut spending or push more government stimulus into the economy. You can read what Ferguson said on our show about Krugman's views.