The G-8 met this weekend at Camp David to address the failure of austerity in promoting economic growth, specifically in Europe where it has allegedly been practiced. Of course, austerity, as modernly defined by a certain segment of the economics profession, has nothing at all to do with the definition from Merriam-Webster ... . Austerity is reckoned by those who oppose it to be an attempt to balance government budgets primarily through cruel spending cuts. Those who make this claim will find it hard to back up with facts in any European country outside Greece[,] which had little choice in the matter given that no one will lend them the Euros to keep up their previous pace of spending. The reality is that efforts to balance budgets in Europe have depended much more on tax increases than spending cuts. The European experience proves nothing except that tax increases reduce growth.
