Focus on jobs, not the budget deficit says Krugman

Paul Krugman has a simple message for U.S. policymakers: Forget about the country’s huge budget deficit. It can be fixed over the next decade. Focus instead on the much more immediate problem of mass unemployment.

“It’s not true we’re going over a cliff on fiscal problems,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist said in an interview with Reuters TV. “We are already over a cliff on the unemployment problem, and that is the thing to worry about.”

Krugman, whose new book, “End This Depression Now!,” chastises officials on both sides of the Atlantic for trying to get fragile economies back on track through austerity, said arguing over how to fix the U.S. budget deficit is a waste of political energy in a time of crisis.

“Every attempt to deal with the deficit turns into an enormous battle,” he said. “Meanwhile, 3.9 million Americans have been out of work for more than a year. That should be, overwhelmingly, our priority. We should be focusing on the clear and present danger.”

Source:

Read More @ Jobs, not fiscal cliff, is real danger to U.S.: Krugman | Reuters.