Austerity in simple terms is basically a policy of making several cuts like reducing domestic wages in order to balance the budget which would remove debt and restore competitiveness within that country. “Austerity is a form of voluntary deflation in which the economy adjusts through the reduction of wages, prices and public spending to restore a country’s competitiveness, which is best achieved by cutting the state’s budget, debts and deficits” (Blyth, 2015,p.2). He gives various examples of countries that have had experiences of austerity such as Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France and America among several others. “For our purposes here, we need only note that the US economy got worse each time austerity was applied, first in 1193 and again …show more content…
The author makes the claim very early on that austerity is a dangerous idea and from the off we know that he is against this policy. In the remainder of the book Blyth continuously backs up this statement. “Austerity clearly is not working if “not working” means reducing the debt and promoting growth” (Blyth, 2015, p.4). The author claims that austerity will only lead to negative factors such as decreased economic growth and increased unemployment. Blyth also talks in his book about many examples of austerity which were introduced in the 1980s and 1990s which had been recorded as ‘success’ stories. Blyth completely disagrees with the examples he has mentioned in the late 1900s and claimed that they were actually not success stories at all. “Not because austerity is unfair, which it is, not because democracy has an inflationary bias, which it doesn’t, but because austerity simply doesn’t work” (Blyth, 2015, …show more content…
He received a PhD in political science from Columbia University in 1999 and is currently a political scientist and professor at Brown University in the United States. Mark Blyth has become one of the world’s leading writers on austerity and he has formed the opinion that the policy of austerity destroys economies all over the world. “Austerity’s continuing application may well result in the eventual breakup of the Eurozone” (Blyth, 2015, p.176). His articles have appeared in several journals such as the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Politics and World Politics. This book was written by Mark Blyth and was first published as an eBook by Oxford University Press on the 7th of March 2013. The novel was then later published as a paperback on the 1st of January
The book begins by saying that economics has more incorrect arguments than any other study. The two critical reasons for this are: People don’t care about the long term health of the public, as much as the care about the short term gain in their private lives. Special interest groups create or reuse correct-sounding fallacies to promote their viewpoint. Economics consists in looking at more than the immediate policy; It includes seeing the problems of the policy for not just one group but for all groups. The misconception that government spending boosts the Economy, is a result of a system of misconceptions. The fact that, we don’t address deficit spending and inflation and assume that public spending will be covered in taxes, is a delusional dream.
Millennials, backed by the rising Generation Z, have proved themselves to be the most secular demographic that the United States has ever borne witness to. On the political spectrum, too, there has been an increase in support from these generations for leftist viewpoints and alignments. This palpable change within the nation’s politics has raised concerns about the communion between religious people and the far left. Matthew Sitman’s article, “Against Moral Austerity: How Religion Can Revitalize the Left,” emphasizes a need for the conjoined forces of faith and liberalism to inspire political change. Written from the biased perspective of a devout Catholic, Sitman struggles to appeal to the secular end of the spectrum through a valid argument but provides enough supportive detail behind his ideas to create, at the very least, an acceptable
As a political personality, Robert Reich writes a book that closely relates the deteriorating status of the U.S. economy with the greed of other politicians and the government as a whole. To some extent, Robert Reich pulls out the sense in economy deterioration with the help of pinning the major government policies. Robert Reich 's argument comes out clearly, directly, and at some point presented willfully. From the heading of the topic of the book, what went wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it, a reader can clearly picture the content of the book that is politics and the financial mess that the United States of America is in today. The book provides a clear, simple, and easy to understand information on how the author, Robert Reich relates the cause a bad financial status for the country and how the government and other wealthy people living in America contribute to causing the financial crisis.
In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand the city has several rules that everyone must follow or they will be held to serious consequences. These rules exist for many reasons even though some of them are a little extreme. The rules do have a lot of purposes, many are to keep the community safe. The City Council has created many rules and restrictions for things and there is a possibility of execution if you break or don’t follow one of those rules.
First of all, if the government decides to cut current public expenditure, it will lead to a reduced quantity and quality of public goods and service. For example, closing NHS direct call centres down which results in lower living standard. Moreover as the spending
It is expected for arguments to arise when writing about controversial topics. Many times the meaning of a book is not as obvious as the author intended, which may lead to problems. Other times, books are challenged because they contain sexual or inappropriate material. When Kurt Vonnegut released Slaughterhouse-Five critics were quick to judge his peculiar way of writing. Although Kurt Vonnegut’s book Slaughterhouse-Five was oftentimes misunderstood, interpreted as inappropriate, and judged for the peculiar point of view, critics seem to appreciate and accept one aspect of it: the structure of the book.
The unprecedented government intervention during the massive economic crisis of the late 2000’s was met with varied sentiment of economists (Lee, 2009). For example, economist Marci Rossell felt that government intervention was arbitrary and lacked clarity as to which firms would receive government aid (Lee, 2009). She furthered her argument by stating that if the government bailed out homeowners and banks that were borrowing and lending “over their heads,” they were creating a dangerous precedent to set (Lee, 2009, p.40). However, Rossell praised the Obama administration for having a clear grasp on the economic situation and trusted in this administration’s guidance to recover from the economic crisis. Conversely, economist Steven Schwarcz said that though the government bailout in 2008 would cost more than it would have if the government had reacted more swiftly to early signs of recession, these institutions would collapse and fail without government aid (“How Three Economists,” 2008). If these institutions failed, the ripple effect of this failure to the U.S. economy would be irreparable.
For centuries, people from all latitudes have been fascinated by the night sky. The unreachable stars, the Moon, the comets and all the events happening in the sky, fired up imaginations and became symbols of life and death, of war, peace and the passing of time and the seasons. The movement of the stars was used to establish the time for planting and harvesting, to prepare for the long winters and to try to discover the future and destiny, the eternal unknown destiny of the human race. Three large human groups, the Mayans, the Aztecs and the Zapotecs populated the Central and Southeastern regions of Mexico long before the discovery of the continent by Columbus. These ancient cultures developed a very complex knowledge of
This policy involves increasing government spending and cutting taxes, in order to spur economic output. But if the government decides they need to do the opposite the government may adopt concretionary fiscal policy. This involves a reduction in government spending and an increase in taxes when faced with an overheating economy. But these actions, may have other effects in the economy. For instance, and expansionary fiscal policy may lead to the crowding out of investment.
The “Great Recession” is commonly used to explain the massive economic contraction that occurred in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2007. However, the actions of the United States spanned to other nations, leaving massive effect on the global economy. One nation that took on serious financial burden during this recession was the United Kingdom. This nation first faced the effects of the Great Recession beginning in the first quarter of 2008. Overall, the initial mass effects on the nation can be attributed to the nation’s reliance on the financial sector. In fact, after partially stabilizing in 2009, the country struggled with a double-dip recession between 2010-12, and continues to struggle with some of these effects.
The economic reforms initiated by Prime Minister Margret Thatcher since 1980’s has made the United Kingdom record steady economic growth in the 1990s. However, successive Labour governments increased government spending significantly. Since 2010, the government upheld austerity as the principal of its economic policy. In 2014, the country recorded its strongest economic growth since 2007 of 2.387 trillion dollars with GDP per capita at 39,350.64 dollars. The GDP increased significantly because of the enhanced performance of the construction, manufacturing, and services sectors. Retail sales also increased with unemployment relatively at lowest
By the end of 2008, the European Union began experiencing rippling effects of the United States financial crisis. Several member countries, most notably on the southern end of the continent, faced high levels of debt and unemployment. Portugal, Iceland, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, derogatively referred to as “PIIGS,” required extensive economic support from the EU in order to repay government debts and bail-out private banks. Disbursal of aid in 2010 proved successful in promoting economic recovery in some countries; however, the vast majority observed only slight economic improvement which led to doubts regarding the effectiveness of the harsh austerity measures implemented. Ireland has most clearly benefited from the financial support of the European Union as the country’s unemployment rate has dropped below ten percent and is expected to witness 4.5% GDP growth in 2016. Portugal, on the other hand, shows little fiscal improvement as evident in an unemployment rate of 13% and an expected GDP growth of only 1.6% in 2016. Although both countries faced tough financial crises in 2010, Ireland has notably outperformed Portugal in resolving the situation. The weak economy in Portugal, as well as continued fiscal hardship in the remaining “PIGS” countries, threaten the preservation of the European Union as financial inequality between the members persists.
Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the UK government has been implementing various policies to combat the recession and stimulate economic growth. This essay will look at how effective the fiscal and monetary policies used since the crisis are in achieving the four-macro economic objectives. In addition, I will provide my input on the best way the UK government can carry out these policies.
It remains it a prolonged economic crisis but has no active completion internationally since the fall of the berlin wall. While Marxism is seeing a renewed interest by society. The media and other spheres of culture speak of Marxism as not being a viable alternative but a source for examining the wrongs of capitalism through the analysis of Marx and by this synthesis a desirable form of capitalism can be formed. This idea, is a form of concession, the admittance of an error of the international markets in lieu of making any systematic criticisms. These arguments get an echo in society where people call for the jailing of bankers and a regulation of the markets but don’t ask any serious questions that trouble the establishment. Marxists economists like the late Andrew Glyn argue that the recession was a result of an unsolved crisis of capitalism from the 1970s where profitability declined and capital had to be shifted from industry to finance. The way capitalism sought to recover was to introduce neo-liberal policies which inflicted savage austerity cuts on labour in a move to squeeze more profitability from workers. While in crises again the problem of the tendency of the rate of profit wasn’t dealt with and with the markets failing, austerity measure had to be reintroduced. This analysis of the economic crisis tells us we are facing a future of shorter booms and much longer recessions and that capitalism is fundamentally incapable of
The terrible internal economies control. The countries in euro area, especially Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain lost their control over the domestic financial situation. Specifically, Greece had long standing financial problems. The government spent largely on the social welfare, and had a great number of public servants who had extremely generous wage and pension benefits. Besides, the government had little control over its budget deficit, leading a long standing financial budget overrun. In Ireland, the estate bubble greatly destroyed government tax income and consumption power of public. Portugal’s lasting recruitment policies led to a great number of redundant public servants. The Italian economy suffered from the high unemployment rate and high tax rate, and had a slow growth in recent years.