"economic hell" -- and that things will never go back to how they were.

Krugman recently warned of a power vacuum during President Bush's lame duck period making the economic crisis even worse. Politico reports that Krugman is "in communications" with the Obama administration regarding the economy.

Krugman: We're In For A Year Of "Economic Hell"

Paul Krugman writes Monday that, no matter what President-elect Obama does, we're in for up to a year of "economic hell" -- and that things will never go back to how they were.
Whatever the new administration does, we're in for months, perhaps even a year, of economic hell. After that, things should get better, as President Obama's stimulus plan -- O.K., I'm told that the politically correct term is now "economic recovery plan" -- begins to gain traction. Late next year the economy should begin to stabilize, and I'm fairly optimistic about 2010.
But what comes after that? Right now everyone is talking about, say, two years of economic stimulus -- which makes sense as a planning horizon. Too much of the economic commentary I've been reading seems to assume, however, that that's really all we'll need -- that once a burst of deficit spending turns the economy around we can quickly go back to business as usual.
In fact, however, things can't just go back to the way they were before the current crisis. And I hope the Obama people understand that.

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