debt burden

     I don’t like to start fights with Nobel prizewinners in economics, especially with one who is usually right, but I have a bone to pick with Paul Krugman on the topic of “fiscal scare tactics.”

     For months now, Krugman has argued that Republicans and their lapdog followers in the press have been hyping the dangers posed by soaring federal deficits and debt.

     “There’s no reason to panic about budget prospects for the next few years, or even for the next decade,” he wrote in his Times column on February 4.   Given the magnitude of this recession, Krugman argues, we absolutely should be running huge deficits in order to prevent an even bigger cataclysm. 

     Last Friday, Krugman followed up with a post on his blog entitled “Debt is a political issue.” There he explained that the Federal debt, now approaching 60 percent of GDP, wouldn’t pose a huge burden even it jumped to 100 perc