>> Krugman making the same point today:
>
> I was a little mystified by his point.
His point is: yes, as a percentage of GDP it is up; but since GDP itself is down due to the recession (is that tautological?) the increase *as a percentage opf GDP* isn't as big as the nominal rise.
My grandmother used to say that you shouldn't compare apples and oranges unless you're trying to prove redness or smoothness. I think he's showing a few charts to make that point.
> The federal share of GDP is up 5 percentage points over
> the last three years ...
Don't forget that Krugman is of the camp that Federal spending as a percentage of GDP is *below* where it "should" be right now; he's comfortable with it all the way up to what some people call the "line of death" -- 90% or so.
He would say that some of it is replacement for private spending having driven off the cliff; I tend to agree with him on this. Especially now that it looks like the financial "bailout" may turn out to be free.
/jordan