After Austerity

Alternatives to Austerity

The Austerity Pandemic

Austere Illusions

Austerity s Children

The Wars of Austerity

The effects of austerity

Europe s Austerity Zombies

The Greek Austerity Myth

Austerity and Debt Realism

Clarity about Austerity

The Wrong Austerity Cure

Ireland and the Austerity Debate

Austerity and Demoralization

End Austerity Now

Austerity Is Not Greece s Problem

Austerity Politics, Then and Now

Greece and the Limits of Anti Austerity

Misconceiving British Austerity

Austerity in Small Places

Sovereign debts, junk ratings protests take to the street

Fiscal Austerity Versus European Society

Does Austerity Promote Economic Growth?

Learning About Growth from Austerity

Austerity alone cannot do it.

Taming Finance in an Age of Austerity

The problem is that austerity has perverse effects.

But austerity is not the only dimension of the debate.

Europe s Irrelevant Austerity Debate

Fiscal austerity is a poor substitute.

But austerity is not working indeed, it is counterproductive.

If the interest rate is higher than the growth rate, austerity is required the wider the gap, the more austerity is needed.

Thus, Europe s failure to recover immediately has been due to a lack of austerity, even though public sector retrenchment has been unprecedented.

Without growth, it will be difficult to stabilize public and private debts and deficits as a share of GDP the most important indicator of fiscal sustainability. Moreover, without growth, the social and political backlash against painful belt tightening will eventually undermine austerity and reform.

But austerity undermines growth, worsening the government s fiscal position, or at least yielding less improvement than austerity s advocates promise.

Ireland opted for austerity and reforms, as has the United Kingdom.

The debate revolves around two major issues austerity and integration.

In particular, Germany demands more fiscal belt tightening from heavily indebted Southern European countries, whose unions (and voters) are rejecting further austerity.

Europe is mired in its oxymoronic commitment to expansionary fiscal austerity.

So the policy prescription for solving the crisis seems simple austerity.

Many inside and outside of Germany declare that both austerity and more growth are needed, and that more emphasis on growth does not mean any decrease in austerity.

And there are signs of austerity and reform fatigue both in Spain and Italy, where demonstrations, strikes, and popular resentment against painful austerity are mounting.

This is a recurring pattern in European politics austerity is proclaimed and defended as the pre condition for growth, but then, when a recession bites, growth becomes the pre condition for continued austerity.

Now developing countries are also following the trend to consolidate.

But austerity can never be self defeating for the external adjustment.