Member of British Parliament Schools Paul Krugman: 'I Find His View Reckless'

As NewsBusters previously reported, England's Telegraph published an article last Thursday with the absolutely glorious headline "Britain Can’t Afford to Fall for the Charms of the False Economics Messiah Paul Krugman."

On Wednesday, appearing on a broadcast of BBC's Newsnight, Krugman got a much-needed education from a conservative member of the British parliament who said she found his view of governments spending their way out of deficits "reckless" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

As the segment began, Krugman was offering his normal nonsense about how austerity isn't working in Europe, and that the key to getting the British economy going again is for the government to spend a lot more money it doesn't have.

The host then said to conservative MP Andrea Leadsom, "I don't know why you're shaking your head. This is a Nobel Prize-winning economist."

Leadsom responded:

ANDREA LEADSOM, CONSERVATIVE MEMBER OF BRITISH PARLIAMENT, TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE: I find his view reckless, frankly. I can’t believe that somebody as, you know, incredibly highly regarded could honestly think that the answer is to go and borrow more money. I mean, it is very simple mathematics, isn’t it? If you are in a hole, if you’ve overspent and overspent, spending more is simply not going to help. It’s going to make things worse. And you talk about austerity, but in reality, this is very, this is austerity lite as Ruth Lee was saying from the IEA. If you really wanted to sort our economy, you’d be doing it far faster - a much shorter, sharper hit to get us back rebounding much sooner than we can.

It really is "very simple mathematics, isn't it?"

Makes you wonder how this is too complex for a "Nobel Prize-winning economist."

Brava, Andrea! Brava!

For those interested, here's the entire segment: