It’s Monday, which means yet another howler from Paul Krugman. (I have given up on kicking the Krugman habit; he throws out one howler after another, and it seems that nearly all of them deserve a response.)

Today, we find a number of important things:

1. The recession has been caused by a decrease in private spending; therefore, government must pick up the slack (this is Keynesian Gospel at its more “pure”).

2. Laws requiring state and local government to balance their budgets are wrongheaded, as that means governments will spend less and provide less economic stimulus — since everyone “knows” that the source of prosperity is spending.He argues that because private spending is down, government programs are even less costly than they are in times of prosperity:

In fact, the true cost of government programs, especially public investment, is much lower now than in more prosperous times. When the economy is booming, public investment competes with the private sector for scarce resources — for skilled construction workers, for capital. But right now many of the workers employed on infrastructure projects would otherwise be unemployed, and the money borrowed to pay for these projects would otherwise sit idle.

And shredding the social safety net at a moment when many more Americans need help isn’t just cruel. It adds to the sense of insecurity that is one important factor driving the economy down.

Keep these howlers coming, Paul. In hard times like these, we need some good laughs!