At it again

Krugman wrote a very good explanation for laymen about his belief that increasing government spending now would be a good idea. I disagree with it, but that's not the point of this post. In the first two paragraphs of the column, Mr. Krugman would have you believe that President Hoover cut government spending, which made the Great Depression worse. He very carefully doesn't say this, but anyone who doesn't know the facts would come away from reading the column thinking that was what happened. Though obviously not on a level with them, this is a lie worthy of the lies the Bush administration told to get us to invade Iraq, where they didn't exactly say lies, but where uninformed listeners/readers would come away thinking falsehoods. For the record, government spending from 1929-1933 (just prior to the Great Depression through FDR's first term) was $3.8bn, $4bn, $4.1bn, $4.3bn, and $5.1bn. Not huge increases, but clear ones, especially in light of the deflationary environment.