On BBC Newsnight, Paul Krugman debates venture capitalist John Moulton and Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom.

Krugman likens today’s austerity proponents to medieval barbers who — when they noticed that their previously-bled patients had gotten worse — prescribed more bleeding.

Krugman points out that we have had several years of evidence now demonstrating conclusively that austerity regimes don’t work. Moulton and Leadsom aren’t buying it. At one point Moulton complains that governments are too large. Krugman replies:

“The austerity drive in Britain isn’t really about debt and deficits … it’s about using deficit panic as an excuse to dismantle social programs. And this is, of course, exactly the same thing that has been happening in America.”