- Publisher: SE Publishing
- Published: 28th February 2019
Belt tightening austerity policies have been the path for most countries shaken by the financial crisis more than ten years ago. The deep spending cuts were often justified based on questionable grounds. Austerity: 12 Myths Exposed debunks commonly held beliefs by the advocates of austerity as the solution to overcome an economic crisis.
Content
PART I: THE AUTHORITY OF AUSTERITY ECONOMICS
The great stagnation and the failure of business investment
Mickey Mouse numbers in economic history: the origins and spinning of 60 / 90 percent debt-to-GDP ratios
PART II: CONTEMPORARY AUSTERITY: RECONSTRUCTING THE IRON CAGE OF PUBLIC FINANCE
The myth of international tax ‘competition’
Privatization reduces the fiscal burden?
Fiscal consolidation: cut spending, solve fiscal problems and increase investment?
PART III: AUSTERITY AND THE EXPLANATION OF ECONOMIC CRISIS
The priority of deficit reduction and the myth of consolidation
Was the euro crisis caused by excessive sovereign debt?
PART IV: THE IMPACT OF DEBT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Markets good, public bad—the false promises of market populism
The state must live within its means?
Swabian housewife economics is good for everyone?
PART V: THE IMPACT OF DEBT ON SOCIETY
Two worlds of austerity: mythologies of activation and incentives
Democratic austerity? Social concertation in the neoliberal state
