Austerity Is 'Complete Horsesh*t': Ivy League Prof Dismantles the Conservative Lie

[tenorly]

3. All the more so because it's always 'austerity for thee - but not for me'.

Governments that enact hard austerity measures are almost always the same ones who give the wealthy and corporations (particularly those who bankrolled their campaigns) large tax cuts that typically equal or exceed the fiscal savings of the austerity itself.

That, plus the slower tax revenue stream that results from the resulting recession, almost always creates even larger deficits as well.

Besides those listed by the author, Argentina under the year-old Macri administration is a good example of that vicious cycle in action (Macri, to his credit, essentially abandoned austerity a few days ago by announcing he'll sign a stimulus package passed by the center-left opposition in Congress).