We are in a depression - unemployment at levels last seen during the thirties, an economic crisis in the Eurozone and the prospect of worse to come.
But the Nobel Prize Winning economist Paul Krugman, thinks none of this needs to be happening and that America and Europe should be richer than they were five years ago - even now it wouldn't take much to solve the problem.
He thinks what debt-ridden governments should be doing is borrowing more to spend their way out of trouble.
(Image: Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman. Credit: Reuters)