Robert Kuttner : Austerity is Killing Europe : Spain and Greece : 30 percent unemployment. -- Britain : 0.3 percent growth. Even Germany, the prime sponsor of these austerity policies, is on the edge of recession. -- It is time to throw out Austerity ideology in the Middle of a Recession !

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Robert Kuttner in the Huffington Post tells us how the stubborness, intransigence, obstinacy and fanaticism of conservative economists is doing great harm to European Economies. That absurd austerity is what congress republicans have been preaching in the USA.

Some excerpts :

One nation after another is challenging German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Central Bank, the two lead purveyors of economic pain as the cure for fiscal sin. The governments of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal are pressing Merkel to relent, and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the ultimate weathervane, now says the EU needs to focus on growth instead of belt-tightening. The International Monetary Fund, usually one of the sponsors of fiscal masochism, says Europe is imposing too much pain.

Here is the U.S., the first quarter numbers were lousy. The economy grew at a rate of just 2.5 percent, less than forecasters projected, and not enough to improve the unemployment rate or raise wages. Analysts across the spectrum correctly blamed the slowdown on the sequester, which cut the budget by $85 billion this year, on top of the January deal that raised taxes, mostly on workers, by another $200 billion.

You don't promote growth by slashing demand. Supposedly, fiscal tightening improves business confidence. But if some entrepreneur somewhere decided to break ground for a new factory because the president and Congress at last cut the budget, nobody could find such a person.

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Huffington Post
Reality 1, Austerity 0
Robert Kuttner
April 28, 2013


Reality 1, Austerity 0


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