austerity

It's clear more austerity measures are coming in more European countries and the US. I think it's a bad idea and I'm curious to find out what this community thinks.

What about the countless pundits who've spent years squawking about austerity? The notion is laughable.

The opposite of austerity. I liked this part: Direct cash payments cut out the many leaks and corrupt intermediaries.

The term 'austerity' is meant to apply to a government living within its means. These days it is applied to a government with single digit debt growth instead of double-digit growth.

Otherwise you get the worst of both worlds: forced austerity and creditors that want nothing to do with you without high interest rates.

Seriously, why are economic stimulus packages unjustifiable, but austerity is not? There are quite a few Greeks asking this same question right now...

The loan-for-austerity solution is too slow. The Cypriot financial minister has already noted "substantial outflows" from banks over the past few weeks [2].

Why austerity is destroying Europe." How about the reality of the situation -- overspending and borrowing have destroyed europe.

I believe what people are protesting is that austerity measures, more often than not, are enforced upon services that benefit the middle to low income working class, rather than on the corporations that were complicit in creating the problem in the first place. They are protesting for a more balanced approach.

The funny thing to me is not how Germany continues to lead the charge for more austerity -- it's in their banks' best interests. Rather, it's funny how this 'new' argument of austerity-driven recovery seems to be taken as somehow valid or relevant for macroeconomic analysis in other countries.

Conditions were tough as we were living with harsh austerity measures, many of these parents barely had enough money to put food on the table, many of these children grew up in families that didn't want them, many of these unwanted children were given up for adoption, filling the streets with beggars. Abortions may be murder, but making them illegal is also murder.

I'd love to see that get fixed, especially because the last 20 years of Japanese history suggests that if we alternate between rounds of weak stimulus and austerity measures, we might be stuck in this economy for decades.

"After five years of bailouts financed largely by austerity-weary European taxpayers, wealthy nations like Germany and the Netherlands have decreed that from now on when a bank or country fails, it will be bond investors and perhaps even bank depositors who will be forced to pick up a big share of the bill." This is so incredibly stupid that it would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

I'm no economic wizard but it really surprised me that how everyone in Europe and many in the States are prescribing austerity, when basic history from this very century frequently demonstrates that austerity can lead to economic damage. Yes you can always find programs that can and should be cut back in any developed society, but considering debt to be the central and only problem in a situation where the debtor defines the very money it "owes" seems a little shortsighted to me.