Krugman on Lessons from 1938 in 2010

Little to add.  The US in falling into a 1938 trap and forgotten the lessons of the Great Depression.

The economic moral is clear: when the economy is deeply depressed, the usual rules don’t apply. Austerity is self-defeating: when everyone tries to pay down debt at the same time, the result is depression and deflation, and debt problems grow even worse. And conversely, it is possible — indeed, necessary — for the nation as a whole to spend its way out of debt: a temporary surge of deficit spending, on a sufficient scale, can cure problems brought on by past excesses.

via Op-Ed Columnist – 1938 in 2010 – NYTimes.com.