Paul Krugman is approaching the argument in the wrong way

Here.

When you say something like "inaction is bad", our critics respond that you just want to "do SOMETHING" in response to crisis. They say that you haven't thought things through you are just responding to an impulse to act.

So don't call the alternative "inaction" because that's really not what it is. Congress has to choose to set a low budget deficit just like they have to choose to set a high deficit. Austerity is not "inaction" it's "action". It's doing "something".

Same with the Fed they are meeting and making a decision one way or another whether it's a decision that Paul Krugman and I like or not. Either way it's an "action".

So don't call it "inaction". The austerians do want to "do something" in response to crisis. The problem is that what they want to actively do is very, very dumb.