Last week, Keynesian inquisitor-extraordinaire Paul Krugman shot off the bizarre suggestion that “historically low-inflation” called for more monetary easing. I debunked the notion of historically low inflation here. Alas, Krugman has now not only made the vague suggestion that another war could potentially be good for the economy, but has taken a step into the absurd, by suggesting that what we really need is an alien invasion. Zecharia Sitchin would be proud. From TIME:

According to the New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize laureate, you know what would end the economic slump in 18 months? Aliens.

Paul Krugman probably feels like an alien himself these days, considering Washington is completely ignoring his unwavering arguments for more fiscal stimulus as President Obama and Congressional Republicans try to out-deficit-reduce each other. So maybe that’s why Krugman has aliens on the brain.

While talking off the cuff on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS program (Zakaria is also a TIME Magazine contributor), Krugman conjectured about what would happen if aliens landed on earth and attacked us.

“If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive build-up to counter the space alien threat, and inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,” Krugman says, referencing an episode of The Twilight Zone in which an alien threat was manufactured to bring about world peace.

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