Krugman:

Specifically, in early 2010 austerity economics — the insistence that governments should slash spending even in the face of high unemployment — became all the rage in European capitals. The doctrine asserted that the direct negative effects of spending cuts on employment would be offset by changes in “confidence,” that savage spending cuts would lead to a surge in consumer and business spending, while nations failing to make such cuts would see capital flight and soaring interest rates. If this sounds to you like something Herbert Hoover might have said, you’re right: It does and he did.

Now the results are in — and they’re exactly what three generations’ worth of economic analysis and all the lessons of history should have told you would happen. The confidence fairy has failed to show up: none of the countries slashing spending have seen the predicted private-sector surge. Instead, the depressing effects of fiscal austerity have been reinforced by falling private spending.

The libertarian crew at Reason magazine will be working overtime coming up with a reason why none of this is actually true.

The Michigan and Arizona primaries are on Feb. 28. Nate Silver has Mittens heavily favored in Arizona, but Frothy is way ahead in Michigan.

Mittens opposed the auto industry bailout, which turned out to be a great success. Steve Kornacki writes,

So as he campaigns in Michigan now, Romney is playing dumb, pretending that the auto industry’s comeback actually validates what he said in ’08 and that Obama — whose administration nudged GM and Chrysler into structured bankruptcy — was actually following the course that he prescribed. The only difference in their approaches, as Romney tells it, is that he would have forced the auto companies to rely on private financing to get through the bankruptcy process, and not the federal government.

Rich Yeselson adds, “this would almost sound sensible except for the fact that—hello!—there was a monster financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. The entire international credit system was frozen—there was no private capital interested and available for such a massive project.”

Meanwhile, Frothy is running around wailing that the Obama Administration’s agenda is not based on the Bible.

It appears the GOP is sticking to its “religious freedom” frame of the president’s contraception coverage policy. They don’t know when to fold. See also “2012: The year of ‘birth control moms‘?”