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The Resource Austerity : the history of a dangerous idea, Mark Blyth

Austerity : the history of a dangerous idea, Mark Blyth

Creator
Summary
Politicians today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts--austerity--to solve the financial crisis. We are told that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. This view conveniently forgets where all that debt came from. Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken banking system. Through these actions private debt was rechristened as government debt while those responsible for generating it walked away scot free, placing the blame on the state, and the burden on the taxpayer. That burden now takes the form of a global turn to austerity, the policy of reducing domestic wages and prices to restore competitiveness and balance the budget. The problem, according to political economist Mark Blyth, is that austerity is a very dangerous idea. First of all, it doesn't work. As the past four years and countless historical examples from the last 100 years show, while it makes sense for any one state to try and cut its way to growth, it simply cannot work when all states try it simultaneously: all we do is shrink the economy. In the worst case, austerity policies worsened the Great Depression and created the conditions for seizures of power by the forces responsible for the Second World War: the Nazis and the Japanese military establishment. As Blyth amply demonstrates, the arguments for austerity are tenuous and the evidence thin. Rather than expanding growth and opportunity, the repeated revival of this dead economic idea has almost always led to low growth along with increases in wealth and income inequality. Austerity demolishes the conventional wisdom, marshaling an army of facts to demand that we recognize austerity for what it is, and what it costs us
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiii, 288 pages
Contents
  • The end of banking, new tales, and a taxing time ahead
  • A primer on austerity, debt, and morality plays
  • America : too big to fail? : bankers, bailouts, and blaming the state
  • Europe : too big to bail : the politics of permanent austerity
  • Introduction to chapters 4, 5, and 6:
  • Austerity's intellectual and natural histories
  • The intellectual history of a dangerous idea, 1692-1942
  • The intellectual history of a dangerous idea, 1942-2012
  • Austerity's natural history, 1914-2012
Isbn
9780199828302
Instance
Label
Austerity : the history of a dangerous idea
Title
Austerity
Title remainder
the history of a dangerous idea
Statement of responsibility
Mark Blyth
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
Politicians today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts--austerity--to solve the financial crisis. We are told that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. This view conveniently forgets where all that debt came from. Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken banking system. Through these actions private debt was rechristened as government debt while those responsible for generating it walked away scot free, placing the blame on the state, and the burden on the taxpayer. That burden now takes the form of a global turn to austerity, the policy of reducing domestic wages and prices to restore competitiveness and balance the budget. The problem, according to political economist Mark Blyth, is that austerity is a very dangerous idea. First of all, it doesn't work. As the past four years and countless historical examples from the last 100 years show, while it makes sense for any one state to try and cut its way to growth, it simply cannot work when all states try it simultaneously: all we do is shrink the economy. In the worst case, austerity policies worsened the Great Depression and created the conditions for seizures of power by the forces responsible for the Second World War: the Nazis and the Japanese military establishment. As Blyth amply demonstrates, the arguments for austerity are tenuous and the evidence thin. Rather than expanding growth and opportunity, the repeated revival of this dead economic idea has almost always led to low growth along with increases in wealth and income inequality. Austerity demolishes the conventional wisdom, marshaling an army of facts to demand that we recognize austerity for what it is, and what it costs us
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1967-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Blyth, Mark
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Debts, Public
  • Budget deficits
  • Financial crises
  • Economic policy
  • Fiscal policy
  • Economic development
  • Income
  • Dettes publiques
  • Déficit budgétaire
  • Politique économique
  • Politique fiscale
  • Développement économique
  • Revenu
  • economic development
  • Economics
  • Budget deficits
  • Debts, Public
  • Economic development
  • Economic policy
  • Financial crises
  • Fiscal policy
  • Income
  • Finanzwirtschaft
  • Finanzpolitik
  • Economics
Label
Austerity : the history of a dangerous idea, Mark Blyth
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-278) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • The end of banking, new tales, and a taxing time ahead
  • A primer on austerity, debt, and morality plays
  • America : too big to fail? : bankers, bailouts, and blaming the state
  • Europe : too big to bail : the politics of permanent austerity
  • Introduction to chapters 4, 5, and 6:
  • Austerity's intellectual and natural histories
  • The intellectual history of a dangerous idea, 1692-1942
  • The intellectual history of a dangerous idea, 1942-2012
  • Austerity's natural history, 1914-2012
Control code
754720534
Dimensions
23 cm
Extent
xiii, 288 pages
Isbn
9780199828302
Lccn
2012046882
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Note
WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 650
Other control number
  • 40022474966
  • 40022301162
System control number
(OCoLC)754720534
Label
Austerity : the history of a dangerous idea, Mark Blyth
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-278) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • The end of banking, new tales, and a taxing time ahead
  • A primer on austerity, debt, and morality plays
  • America : too big to fail? : bankers, bailouts, and blaming the state
  • Europe : too big to bail : the politics of permanent austerity
  • Introduction to chapters 4, 5, and 6:
  • Austerity's intellectual and natural histories
  • The intellectual history of a dangerous idea, 1692-1942
  • The intellectual history of a dangerous idea, 1942-2012
  • Austerity's natural history, 1914-2012
Control code
754720534
Dimensions
23 cm
Extent
xiii, 288 pages
Isbn
9780199828302
Lccn
2012046882
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Note
WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 650
Other control number
  • 40022474966
  • 40022301162
System control number
(OCoLC)754720534

Subject

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