Austerity

In Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, Mark Blyth, a renowned scholar of political economy, provides a powerful and trenchant account of the shift toward austerity policies by governments throughout the world since 2009.

Zusatztext Among all the calamities spawned by the global financial crisis! none was as easily avoidable as the idea that austerity policies were the only way out. In this feisty book! noted political scientist Mark Blyth covers new territory by recounting the intellectual history of this failed idea and how it came to exert a hold on the imagination of economists and politicians. It is an indication of the sorry state of macroeconomics that it takes a political scientist toexpose so thoroughly one of the economics profession's most dangerous delusions. Informationen zum Autor Mark Blyth is Professor of International Political Economy at Brown University. He is the author of Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century. Klappentext In Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea! Mark Blyth! a renowned scholar of political economy! provides a powerful and trenchant account of the shift toward austerity policies by governments throughout the world since 2009. Zusammenfassung Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013Governments 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 cutsausterityto 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 itsimultaneously: 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 austerity for what it is, and what it costs us. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface; Austerity! a Personal History ; 1 A Primer on Austerity! Debt! and Morality Plays; Part One Why We All Need to Be Austere; 2 America: Too Big to Fail?; Bankers! Bailouts! and Blaming the State; 3 Europe-Too Big to Bail; The Politics of Permanent Austerity; Part Two Austerity's Twin Histories; Introduction to Chapters 4! 5! and 6; Austerity's Intellectual and Natural Histories; 4 The Intellectual History of a Dangerous Idea! 1692-1942; 5 The Intellectual History of a Dangerous Idea! 1942-2012; 6 Austerity's Natural History! 1914-2012; Part Three Conclusion; 7 The End of Banking! New Tales! and a Taxing; Time Ahead; Notes; Index ...

Among all the calamities spawned by the global financial crisis, none was as easily avoidable as the idea that austerity policies were the only way out. In this feisty book, noted political scientist Mark Blyth covers new territory by recounting the intellectual history of this failed idea and how it came to exert a hold on the imagination of economists and politicians. It is an indication of the sorry state of macroeconomics that it takes a political scientist to expose so thoroughly one of the economics profession's most dangerous delusions.

Auteur

Mark Blyth is Professor of International Political Economy at Brown University. He is the author of Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century.

Texte du rabat

In Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, Mark Blyth, a renowned scholar of political economy, provides a powerful and trenchant account of the shift toward austerity policies by governments throughout the world since 2009.

Résumé
Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013 Governments 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 austerity for what it is, and what it costs us.

Contenu

• Preface

• Austerity, a Personal History

• 1 A Primer on Austerity, Debt, and Morality Plays

• Part One Why We All Need to Be Austere

• 2 America: Too Big to Fail?

• Bankers, Bailouts, and Blaming the State

• 3 Europe-Too Big to Bail

• The Politics of Permanent Austerity

• Part Two Austerity's Twin Histories

• Introduction to Chapters 4, 5, and 6

• Austerity's Intellectual and Natural Histories

• 4 The Intellectual History of a Dangerous Idea, 1692-1942

• 5 The Intellectual History of a Dangerous Idea, 1942-2012

• 6 Austerity's Natural History, 1914-2012

• Part Three Conclusion

• 7 The End of Banking, New Tales, and a Taxing

• Time Ahead

• Notes

• Index