The Austerity Pandemic
Isabel Ortiz, Matthew Cummins – Most countries are cutting public expenditures – with the IMF’s support. So, even as some northern countries begin to question the austerity prescription, their southern counterparts (including southern European countries) are increasingly adopting fiscal-adjustment measures. Ours does not have to be an age of austerity; governments, even in the poorest countries, have options to foster a socially responsive economic recovery. These include, among other measures, debt restructuring, increasing the progressivity of taxation (on personal income, property, and corporations, including the financial sector), and curbing tax evasion, the use of tax havens, and illicit financial flows.
[Full article in Project Syndicate]
[Paper “The Age of Austerity” is available here]
Reading Development 