I’m sure you’re familiar with the old bumper sticker: “I can’t be overdrawn, I still have checks left.”

Well, that sort of “logic” now passes for serious economic analysis for The New York Times’ Paul Krugman.

The nation is not, in fact, “broke.” The federal government is having no trouble raising money, and the price of that money — the interest rate on federal borrowing — is very low by historical standards. So there’s no need to scramble to slash spending now now now; we can and should be willing to spend now if it will produce savings in the long run.

This closely follows the “logic” of the stereotypical housewife who comes home with numerous bags of clothes and tells her husband about all the money she saved by making all those purchases.

We’ve got a serious debt problem that only a partisan hack would deny. Luckily, the Times has one of those.