Krugman Uses Misleading Deficit Graph

Paul Krugman's columns and blogs are a great source of insight on the economy and the budget, but he does occasionally make mistakes. He is guilty of one today, when he used a very misleading graph on the sources of the budget deficits in his blog.

There are two major problems with the graph. First, it begins in 2009. This might lead readers to believe that large budget deficits had been an ongoing problem. That is not true. The deficit was just 1.2 percent of GDP in 2007 and was projected...