Well, after lavishing praise on Obama a week ago, our latest Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman once again is in a snit: Obama is not spending enough to launch the economy back to prosperity:

…many economists, myself included, actually argued that the plan was too small and too cautious. The latest data confirm those worries — and suggest that the Obama administration’s economic policies are already falling behind the curve.

You just can’t make up this stuff. Krugman — the MIT-trained economist who has spent his career at the world’s most elite institutions of higher education — now appeals to public opinion:

Republicans are now firmly committed to the view that we should do nothing to respond to the economic crisis, except cut taxes — which they always want to do regardless of circumstances. If Mr. Obama comes back for a second round of stimulus, they’ll respond not by being helpful, but by claiming that his policies have failed.

The broader public, by contrast, favors strong action. According to a recent Newsweek poll, a majority of voters supports the stimulus, and, more surprisingly, a plurality believes that additional spending will be necessary. But will that support still be there, say, six months from now?

Also, an overwhelming majority believes that the government is spending too much to help large financial institutions. This suggests that the administration’s money-for-nothing financial policy will eventually deplete its political capital.

Yeah, yeah. Those “unhelpful” Republicans. If they question anything, then they are not “helping.” And, yes, all those armchair economists in the “broader public” want action, action, action.

Now, I happen to agree with the “broader public” that bailing out the banks is ludicrous, although Krugman’s demand that Obama nationalize them also is ridiculous and harmful.

Krugman worries that by the time unemployment has passed 9 percent, Obama will not have the political capital to push through yet another huge spending bill. Of course, when that time comes, I am sure that Obama, Krugman, and others will blame Goldstein, er, the few Republicans left in Congress for not being “helpful.”

For the first time in more than a decade, Republicans actually are doing something to reverse the harm they caused when they were in the majority. However, anything that smacks of fiscal sanity is not going to earn praise when the Nobel Laureate speaks.

Just think. The upshot of an economics doctorate at that prestigious university, MIT, is this: print, print, print, borrow, borrow, borrow, spend, spend, spend. Yeah, I knew all that math was good for something.