Category: Economic Austerity
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, September 03, 2021
Prepare Now for Brutal Economic Austerity -- Here's Why / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: EWI
Here's what's holding together a "global house of cards"
When financial times get tough, you hear the phrases "tightening our belts," "cutting back" or "making do with less."
Those are common phrases to describe the word "austerity."
If spending and borrowing had been done with moderation when times were good, then the tough times would not be as tough -- or austere.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
IMF Says Austerity Is Over - Surplus or Stimulus / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Austerity is over, proclaimed the IMF this week. And no doubt attributed that to the ‘successful’ period of ‘five years of belt tightening’ a.k.a. ‘gradual fiscal consolidation’ it has, along with its econo-religious ilk, imposed on many of the world’s people. Only, it’s not true of course. Austerity is not over. You can ask many of those same people about that. It’s certainly not true in Greece.
Monday, November 23, 2015
The Success of Irish Economic Austerity: The Joke is on Krugman / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Michael_Pento
During the late 1990s, Ireland's economy was booming. This was mostly due to a low corporate tax rate of just 12.5% and an international real estate bubble that boosted global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For a myriad of reasons Ireland was a magnet for foreign direct investment and the envy of Europe.
Buoyed by cheap money, the Irish government embarked on a debt-fueled property boom from 1997 to 2006, which caused the price of an average house to jump more than four-fold. Flush with tax revenue the government also went on a spending binge: investment in Ireland's health service soared by five times and pay for government workers doubled.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Economic Austerity is Now Extinct / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Michael_Pento
Greece’s newly elected leftist Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, is bringing deficit spending back into vogue. The charismatic prime minister laid out plans to dismantle Greece's "cruel" austerity program, ruling out any extension of its international bailout and setting himself on a collision course with the European Union. Unabashedly candid, he has burst on the scene as the veritable anti-austerity rock star; serenading fans with a return to big spending, including a raise in the minimum wage and pensions.
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Thursday, February 27, 2014
End to Economic Austerity? / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Mark_Thornton
President Barack Obama has recently released his budget in which he calls for an “end of austerity.” This is an amazing statement from a president whose government has spent the highest percentage of GDP in history and added more to the national debt than all past presidents combined. What must he mean by austerity?
There are demonstrations around the world over austerity on an almost daily basis. It is condemned as an evil poison for tough economic times while others tout it as the elixir for economic depressions.
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Wednesday, January 08, 2014
£25 Billion More Cuts, Economic Terrorism on Britain's Working Class / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Global_Research
Colin Todhunter writes: British Chancellor George Osborne this week announced massive cuts of £25 billion after 2015. This included further welfare cuts of £12bn. Osbourne said that 2014 would be a year of hard truths. He claimed that his economic policies were working, but admitted that the bad news is there’s still a long way to go.
He warned of more years of cuts to public services and the public sector by saying £25bn would be cut over two years after 2015. That is in addition to £17bn cuts this year and £20bn next year. Osbourne argued that government is going to have to be permanently smaller and so too is the welfare system.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
How Government Austerity Cutbacks Ended Sweden’s Great Depression / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: MISES
Per L. Bylund writes: During the recent financial crisis, Sweden has emerged as one of very few financially sound economies. The country’s strong position, setting it apart from most Western nations, makes it an interesting example of what could — or should — have been done. Indeed, Paul Krugman, the former economist and Nobel Prize laureate, has repeatedly pointed approvingly at how the Swedes handled their depression in the early 1990s as the reason for their recent success. Specifically, he notes the nationalization of some banks at the time of the crisis. While he misses the point by focusing exclusively on a narrow selection of short-term measures rather than longer-term changes, as is the hallmark of a Keynesian, Krugman is right that Sweden has done some things right.
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
The Three Types of Economic Austerity / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: MISES
Frank Hollenbeck writes: Reading the financial press, one gets the impression there are only two sides to the austerity debate: pro-austerity and anti-austerity. In reality, we have three forms of austerity. There is the Keynesian-Krugman-Robert Reich form which promotes more government spending and higher taxes. There is the Angela Merkel form of less government spending and higher taxes, and there is the Austrian form of less spending and lower taxes. Of the three forms of austerity, only the third increases the size of the private sector relative to the public sector, frees up resources for private investment, and has actual evidence of success in boosting growth.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Is Economic Austerity Responsible for the Crisis in Europe? / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: MISES
Martin Masse writes: Most European economies have been in recession, or close to it, since the beginning of 2012. Unemployment rates are reaching record highs. Meanwhile, a debate has been raging about the deleterious effects of “austerity” measures. Various heads of government, finance ministers, and European Union officials have declared that austerity has gone too far and is preventing a recovery.
Keynesian economists like Paul Krugman are seeing this as unassailable proof that stimulus policies adopted when the financial crisis started in 2008-09 should never have been reversed and replaced by austerity measures, notwithstanding the explosion of public debt that they entailed.
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Sunday, June 02, 2013
What If Economic Stimulus Is Self-Defeating? / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Raul_I_Meijer
It's sort of funny to see a wider - though still faint - recognition developing in the financial world that perhaps it's true that the more stimulus is applied in today's global economies, the faster it will hit a wall. Some may finally even begin to see one or more inbuilt mechanisms at work. I personally think it all harks back to what I've long said, that stimulus by governments and central banks may have a function in certain economic cycles, but that applying it without across the board and thorough debt restructuring is a borderline criminal and useless use (and waste) of present and future taxpayer money. Still, we all know by now what will happen when stimulus starts to stutter: ever more will be blindly thrown at that wall.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Europe's New Look Economic Austerity / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Andrew_McKillop
WRONG WAY BET
Defended on French TV channel BFM in an evening marathon looking at Francois Hollande's first year of power, April 29, by his Economy minister and other "party heavyweights" with a lackluster crop of one-liners, viewers saw recent opinion polls asking if French voters would vote again for Hollande, if an election was held today.
Roughly 19% said they would, and 64% said they would vote for Sarkozy if he stood again. Street interviews with average persons, one after another, said they voted the wrong way in 2012.
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Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Is Sequestration a Gift or Economic Apocalypse / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Everybody sing along...
It's a happy day... Oh happy days. It's a happy day...Oh happy days. When sequestration rules it drives the tears away... Oh happy days!
Apocalypse!
Armageddon!
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Sunday, March 03, 2013
U.S. Sequester and Negative Economics? / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Ian_R_Campbell
I am sending this Newsletter today, Saturday, a departure from my normal practice, because of what I see as the importance of the inability of Washington politicians to - at least for the time being - come together on the so-called 'sequester budget cuts' that barring subsequent agreement have now taken effect.
As anyone in the world who can hear or read likely knows, last night U.S. President Obama signed an order putting the 'sequester budget cuts' in place. This means that between now and September 30 - the end of the U.S. Federal Government fiscal year, that absent subsequent negotiations and agreement that changes things - $85 billion in spending cuts will be made from the current 2013 U.S. federal spending budget (before these cuts, $3.8 trillion).
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Sunday, March 03, 2013
What You Need to Know About Sequestration / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: InvestmentContrarian
George Leong writes: The day has arrived. Today will see the start of the much-anticipated $1.2-trillion decade-long budget cuts under the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 (394 pages if you want to read it), which represents America’s own austerity measures to cut the deficit. The proposed cuts will entail about $85.0 billion in annual budget cuts; and while it’s needed, given the runaway national debt of over $16.6 trillion, it will have a widespread impact on the state of the country and the economy, including program cuts, job losses, and chaos.
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Wednesday, December 05, 2012
George Osborne's Smoke and Mirrors Economic Austerity Cuts, Deficit and Debt / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Nadeem_Walayat
George Osborne in his Autumn Statement today will announce a further smoke and mirrors call to arms for greater economic austerity for the purpose of cutting the deficit and paying down Britain's debt, despite the fact that during the past 3 years there has been no real net economic austerity as the deficit has soared back to over £120 billion pear year and public debt remains on the exact same trajectory as it was on BEFORE the last general election, which illustrates a fundamental point that neither labour nor the Conservatives actually want the deficit and debt to reduce but instead utilise debt in the support of their differing ideologies where for Labour high debt to GDP as an Keynesian excuse to expand the size of the economy through the public sector and for the Conservatives to reduce the size of the Labour voting public sector and benefits claiming voter pool via economic austerity and to expand the economy via lower taxes for the private sector.
Monday, December 03, 2012
The Myth of Economic Austerity / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Philipp_Bagus
Many politicians and commentators such as Paul Krugman claim that Europe's problem is austerity, i.e., there is insufficient government spending. The common argument goes like this: Due to a reduction of government spending, there is insufficient demand in the economy leading to unemployment. The unemployment makes things even worse as aggregate demand falls even more, causing a fall in government revenues and an increase in government deficits. European governments pressured by Germany (which did not learn from the supposedly fateful policies of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning) then reduce government spending even further, lowering demand by laying off public employees and cutting back on government transfers.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Why Governments Always Punt on Economic Austerity / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Michael_Pento
The simple reason why governments never freely decide on fiscal responsibility is because fixing their well-entrenched problems of over borrowing and spending means that their already fragile economies would be temporarily thrown over a cliff.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, November 10, 2012
EU Game Changer: Economic Austerity Hits The Core / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Here's what may be a useful angle to explain to people what is happening in Europe right now, and what's yet to come. It's not about Greece, which shoved another "Deal" through its besieged parliament this week, a deal that itself is also still under siege. It's not about Spain either, which managed to borrow a few billon more, enough to stay alive till Christmas, but sees its bond yields enter the land of ugly (yawn) again.
Friday, November 09, 2012
When is a Good Time for Economic Austerity? / Economics / Economic Austerity
By: Michael_Pento
It is a basic rule of human nature not to voluntarily self inflict pain upon ourselves. If there is any way to avoid the day of reckoning, even if it means the eventual catastrophe will be much worse if we delay, we always choose to hold reality in abeyance. This principle applies to countries as well because the notion of embracing austerity on a national level goes against the grain of our collective psyche.
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Friday, August 03, 2012
The Economic Austerity Hoax / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Stephen_Lendman
Since 2008, Western nations have force-fed their people austerity poison. Decline replaces prosperity. Millions suffer. Living standards deteriorate. Societies become no longer fit to live in.
Neoliberal and imperial priorities let essential public needs go begging. How much more people will take before erupting remains to be seen.
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