By PAUL KRUGMAN; New York Times; August 10, 2009

So it seems that we aren’t going to have a second Great Depression after all. What saved us? The answer, basically, is Big Government. ……. Probably the most important aspect of the government’s role in this crisis isn’t what it has done, but what it hasn’t done: unlike the private sector, the federal government hasn’t slashed spending as its income has fallen. (State and local governments are a different story.) Tax receipts are way down, but Social Security checks are still going out; Medicare is still covering hospital bills; federal employees, from judges to park rangers to soldiers, are still being paid. …… Ronald Reagan was wrong: sometimes the private sector is the problem, and government is the solution.  And aren’t you glad that right now the government is being run by people who don’t hate government?