What will it take to prevent The Great Depression II?

Over at Alternet, Paul Krugman has a piece detailing some dire facts about our current economic situation. His forecast is yet again not rosy or optimistic, but unfortunately quite plausible. Krugman thinks that a large spending spree by the government on public works type infrastructure will be a hard sell, even to a Democratic congress. I tend to agree, but hard sell or not, it may be the best way to pump some money into the economy and still get some value for it. Much better than stimulus checks or tax cuts for the top rich-as-fuck %. Krugman also kinda throws some shit into the face of Bernanke and the Fed in general and makes claims that Keynes was right all along. It seems like a much better deal to get some nicer roads, maybe a new school or even a sturdy bridge or two, than whatever it is you get when the government throws $600 checks at poor people. Granted, I could use one of those checks and I wouldn't complain to the bank teller when I cashed it, but I don't see where it helps much in the long run. So I guess the question is, do we throw prayers at the approaching storm in hopes that it will change course, or do we employee the unemployed on the government dime and build a shelter that will withstand the storm and be of use well into the future?