Krugman On How Austerity Could Become 'The New Normal'

Paul Krugman points to the changing reaction worldwide to the increasingly manifest bad consequences of austerity: bad results are settling into "the new normal," provoking no significant policy changes despite growing degrees of economic suffering among Americans and Europeans. Ever more prevalent is the reaction, "never mind the resulting economic decline; we KNOW austerity is the right course of action!" Here's Krugman:

I guess what I’m saying is that I worry that a more or less permanent depression could end up simply becoming accepted as the way things are, that we could suffer endless, gratuitous suffering, yet the political and policy elite would feel no need to change its ways.

Oh, and have a nice day.

Let me rephrase Krugman's message a bit: Any large-scale, widespread economic policy that propagates ongoing depression, however virtuous that policy may seem in the short description, is dysfunctional, and should be assiduously avoided.

Oh, and... have a nice day!