I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, February 18th.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman joins us to talk about President Joe Biden, the $1.9 trillion

dollar coronavirus relief bill, and Biden's economic policies in general.

In the president's CNN Town Hall on Tuesday, he said this as a general principle.

We can come back, we can come roaring back. It's estimated that if we've, by most economists, including Wall Street firms, as well as, as, you know,

think tanks of political think tanks left, right and center, it is estimated that if you,

we pass this bill alone, we'll create seven million jobs this year, seven million jobs this year.

The president on Tuesday night, Republicans won a much smaller bill, arguing among other things

that it was right in the early part of the pandemic to pay people well to stay home,

but now with the vaccination rate rising, the job will be to open back up safely,

not to incentivize people to remain unemployed.

So with that as Prelude, we welcome Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate in economics,

New York Times columnist for 20 years,

distinguished professor at the City University of New York Times columnist for 20 years, distinguished professor at the

City University of New York Graduate Center, and the author of Arguing with Zombies, Economics, Politics,

and the Fight for a Better Future, now out in paperback. Dr. Kudman, we always appreciate when you

come on. Welcome to, welcome back to WNYC. Hi. Good to be on, on this snowy day.

Do you understand where the president's number of seven million jobs comes from, and do you

agree with that math? Yeah, I mean, of course, it's economic, so that's seven million,

you know, plus or minus at least three million, because no one can do this with any exactitude.

But the idea that if we can provide a bridge through the rest of the pandemic, which is what the bill is really supposed to do,

that the economy can come roaring back and generate, you know, that we can regain a lot of the jobs that were lost during the pandemic.

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