~ A-IAFO-VD-IWTEATT-R-O-W-P-A-PS-TR-C-WI(S)BAB-CTS-B-D-A-D-DS-IAB-WI-‘BC’ ~ Austerity – Is A Form Of – Voluntary Deflation – In Which The Economy Adjusts Through The – Reduction – Of – Wages – Prices – And – Public Spending – To Restore – Competitiveness – Which Is (Supposedly) Best Achieved By – Cutting The State’s – Budget – Debts – And – Deficits – Doing So – Its Advocates Believe – Will Inspire – “Business Confidence”

~ TPOA-IMOTN-ETWTTD-PBIPTVOYATTA ~ The Policy Of Austerity – Is More Often Than Not – Exactly The Wrong Thing To Do – Precisely Because It Produces The Very Outcomes You Are Trying To Avoid

~ IWITTP-WSIPTB? ~ I Wasn’t Invited To The Party – Why Should I Pay The Bill?

~ T-ADW-I-TFRIADI ~ That – Austerity Doesn’t Work – Is – The First Reason It’s A Dangerous Idea

~ TWCIA-‘SDC’-SAVIPO-‘BAS’-AP ~ That We Call It A – “Sovereign Debt Crisis” – Suggests A Very Interesting Politics Of – “Bait And Switch” – At Play

~ TCO-STGBS-HEUO-TBSOG-ATATCO-TB-WIWWMCT-A-SDC-WIFIIQ-TAWC-BC ~ The Cost Of – Saving The Global Banking System – Has Ended Up On – The Balance Sheets Of Governments – As They Absorb The Costs Of – The Bust – Which Is Why We Mistakenly Call This – A – Sovereign Debt Crisis – When In Fact It Is A – Transmuted And Well Camouflaged – Banking Crisis

~ ‘TBTF’-‘TBTB’ ~ “Too Big To Fail” – “Too Big To Bail”

~ ISAA-STB-TWN-OOGS-TGUT ~ It’s Still All About – Saving The Banks – There Was No – Orgy Of Government Spending – To Get Us There

~ AINJ-TPOSTB-T-TPTTBWSETP ~ Austerity Is Not Just – The Price Of Saving The Banks – It’s – The Price That The Banks Want Someone Else To Pay

~ S-A-I-ITT-YCCDWMD-I-TBATPTDECATDSOPTPABUAD-T-APSWNW ~ So – Although – If – Its True That – You Cannot Cure Debt With More Debt – If – Those Being Asked To Pay The Debt Either Cannot Afford To Do So Or Perceive Their Payments As Being Unfair And Disproportionate – Then – Austerity Policies Simply Will Not Work

~ EITWND-DHLIAMEF-‘ZE’~ Economic Ideas That Will Not Die – Despite Huge Logical Inconsistencies And Massive Empirical Failures – “Zombie Economics”

~ FOUWITTP-B-WAABATPTB ~ Few Of Us Were Invited To The Party – But – We Are All Being Asked To Pay The Bill

~ A-IFAFA-PPOD-A-NAEPOA ~ Austerity – Is First And Foremost A – Political Problem Of Distribution – And – Not An Economic Problem Of Accountancy

~ F-ND-AGI ~ Facts – Never Disconfirm – A Good Ideology

~ ACFWTCFHWT-NOCHSIC-SCAN ~ A Common Refrain When The Crisis First Hit Was That – No One Could Have Seen It Coming – Such Claims Are Nonsense

~ BS-ALP(GTSAAD)-A-(V)H-I-E ~ Black Swan – A Low Probability (Given The Sample And Assumed Distribution) – And – (Very) High-Impact – Event

~ TTOAGOETWOESMAGATSAB-TMUW-WTI ~ The Theories Of A Generation Of Economic Thinkers Who Only Ever Saw Markets As Good And The State As Bad – The Models Used Were – Worse Than Inaccurate

~ NOAHNOTHATDW-TSSH-O-IM ~ Note Once Again How None Of This Has Anything To Do With – The State’s Spending Habits – Or – Individual Morality

~ TPPOFI ~ The Political Power Of Financial Ideas

~ TWCWTTSTS? ~ The World Changes While The Theory Stays The Same?

~ DET-E-A-D-D-PAEC ~ Different Economic Theories – Empower – And – Disempower – Different – Political And Economic Constituencies

~ TPWPT-TB-DH-SITG ~ The Problem Was Precisely That – The Banks – Didn’t Have – Skin In The Game

~ Systemic Risk – The Risk – That You Cannot – Diversify Away

~ TS-PAGASAFC-IDN-DAFDTPS ~ The State – Plugged A Gap And Stopped A Financial Collapse – It Did Not – Dig A Fiscal Ditch Through Profligate Spending

~ TBMHMTL-B-TCWPFT ~ The Banks May Have Made The Losses – But – The Citizenry Will Pay For Them

~ R-WSTB-C-B-FDAR-MT-B-I-TTST-AAS-RT-RAC-TRITS ~ Risks – Were Supposed To Be – Controlled – By – Financial Derivatives And Risk-Management Tools – But – Instead – These Technologies Seemed To – Amplify And Spread – Rather Than – Reduce And Control – The Risk In The System

~ TINNAM-TPIWL-STPOOL-E-ICAPIMF-AA-DPP-TI-C-R-E-B-A-ATR ~ There Is Nothing Natural About Markets – Turning People Into Wage Laborers – Securing The Private Ownership Of Land – Even – Inventing Capital And Preserving Its Monetary Form – Are All – Deeply Political Projects – That Involve – Courts – Regulation – Enforcement – Bureaucracy – And – All The Rest

~ TS:CLWI/CLWI/DWTPFI ~ The State: Can’t Live With It / Can’t Live Without It / Don’t Want To Pay For It

~ A-R-AI-IT-FABER ~ Austerity – Remains – An Ideology – Immune To – Facts And Basic Empirical Refutation

~ ADW-P-IATFRCAFCOWLL-‘EFC’-TCAEDBFOTWTAPM-O-TPSGTCW-IHIBU-CP-R-PI-MRTLD-A-A-W-IHNO-‘DWISOTT’ ~ Austerity Doesn’t Work – Period – Insofar As The Fossil Record Contains A Few Cases Of What Look Like – “Expansionary Fiscal Consolidations” – These Cases Are Either Driven By Factors Other Than What The Austerity Proponents Maintain – Or – Those Proponents Simply Get The Cases Wrong – It Has Instead Brought Us – Class Politics – Riots – Political Instability – More Rather Than Less Debt – Assassinations – And – War – It Has Never Once – “Done What It Says On The Tin”

~ A-IGIPB-TIOS-TAO-AEDOTTB ~ Austerity – Is Generated In Part By – The Inability Of Societies – To Agree On – An Equitable Distribution Of The Tax Burden

~ H-PAD-EACOTP-F-MHEIOGM ~ Having – Pumped And Dumped – Every Asset Class On The Planet – Finance – May Have Exhausted Its Own Growth Model

~ TIHWAGTDWOD-T-T-AN-A-NBAIU-WII-NBTAMDTC-WTA-A-NBDHAIB-WID-B-B-ASDW ~ This Is How We Are Going To Deal With Our Debts – Through – Taxes – And Not – Austerity – Not Because Austerity Is Unfair – Which It Is – Not Because There Are More Debtors Than Creditors – Which There Are – And – Not Because Democracy Has An Inflationary Bias – Which It Doesn’t – But – Because – Austerity Simply Doesn’t Work