Reddit Reddit reviews Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea

We found 11 Reddit comments about Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Business & Money
Books
Economics
Economic Policy & Development
Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea
Oxford University Press, USA
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11 Reddit comments about Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea:

u/Analyzethegacts · 13 pointsr/Quebec

Pour ceux qui veulent en savoir plus sur les dangers de l'austérité pure, je recommande le livre de l'économiste politique Écossait Mark Blyth: Austerity, the history of a dangerous idea

Aussi, il existe des centaines de vidéos Youtube sur Mark Blyth.

Petite clarification sur ce que j'ai dit:

Ce que le Gouvernement Québécois (Libéral) a fait de bien c'est qu'il a économisé durant une période de richesse économique afin d'avoir un "coussin" pour la prochaine crise qui pourrait avoir lieu... Il faut faire de l'austérité (ou de la rigueur budgétaire) quand les choses vont bien afin d'avoir de l'argent à dépenser quand les choses vont mal pour supporter l'économie.

Bon point pour le Gouvernement Couillard et aussi bon point pour le Gouvernement de la CAQ qui n'a pas tout dépensé dans son premier budget.

u/project2501a · 8 pointsr/geopolitics
u/Smithman · 8 pointsr/ireland

Read this. In 2008 we weren't hit by a recession, we were hit by a robbery.

u/BJHanssen · 8 pointsr/singularity

What you're ignoring is that the gravest insults under which you suffer are perpetrated by those authorities you deem "insufficient". Petty slights in everyday life pale in insignificance compared to the systemic crimes against your rights by the powerful (and are in fact to a large extent caused by these systemic frustrations), and a system like this would do nothing but grant them unprecedented powers to expand these crimes.



Want some literature? Begin with the obvious, Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. Next, read up on complex systems theory, maybe take a course or at least have a look through some of the videos here. Having some insight into behavioural economics and power dynamics is very useful.

Then read Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, and then Necessary Illusions by the same Chomsky ("Understanding Power - The Essential Chomsky" is also a good, but long, one) for an overview of the mentioned systemic crimes by those in power, and for a general understanding of how power operates on large scales. Many will discount Chomsky due to his political leanings, I think that's a huge error. The way he argues and presents relies heavily on actual examples and real-world comparisons, and these are useful even if you fundamentally disagree with his political stance (I personally belong on the left of the spectrum, but I do not subscribe to his anarcho-libertarianism or anarcho-syndicalist stances). I also recommend "Austerity - The History of a Dangerous Idea" by economist Mark Blyth for this purpose.

Finally, Extra Credits has a good introduction to the concept of gamification with the playlist here. At the end, see this video for an introduction to the actual Sesame Credits system in the gamification perspective.

The field is inherently cross-disciplinary, and "specialisation" in the field is almost a misnomer since the only way to get there, really, is to have a broad (if not deep) understanding of multiple fields, including psychology, pedagogy, linguistics, game design theory, design theory in general, economics, management and leadership theory, complex systems and network analysis, and now it seems politics as well. Some gamification specialists operate in much narrower fields and so do not need this broad an approach (generally, most people in the field operate in teams that contain most of this knowledge), and some of the fields incorporate aspects from the others so you won't have to explicitly study all of them (pedagogy, for example, is in many ways a branch of applied psychology, and game design theory must include lessons on psychology and complex systems).

Edit: Added Amazon links to the mentioned books.

u/johnbkeen · 4 pointsr/ROI

I disagree, its working for a minority of people. Neoliberalism hasn't achieved what it was promised to do and people are looking elsewhere for answers. That's what caused Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn, UKIP or the Brexit Party, the Yelow Vests, Donald Trump, and the collapse of "centrist" parties across Europe.

Mark Blyth, a political economist from Brown university has written about this. He has a good few lectures on YouTube that talk about the topic extensively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S31VLG8Qi78

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0199389446/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

u/famasfilms · 3 pointsr/ukpolitics

I'm currently reading http://www.amazon.com/Austerity-The-History-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0199389446 and the author is quite clear that Greece was the only European economy that was guilty of over spending.

u/anonymouse5440 · 2 pointsr/CanadaPolitics

> ...a topic you know nothing about. You don't know what he's saying is right or wrong because it's evident you don't understand economics. Understandably you trust him more than a random poster on the internet, but at least educate yourself.

I have educated myself. I agree with Mark Blyth's view on the matter.

> I never claimed I'm an expert...

...you just claimed that I "know nothing" about this topic, that I don't understand economics, and that I'm uneducated. And your previous post didn't really address the issues raised by Blyth in his video either, you just spun an entirely different narrative. You might as well have just crowned yourself the definitive authority on the topic.

> Regardless when we do enter a recession make sure to remember not every professor is all-knowing.

Yes, we're probably going to enter a recession, and it will probably result from factors outside of Canada's control. There are two ways of dealing with the recession when it comes, and Mark Blyth's approach has a lot of merit. But if you have doubts I suggest you check out his detailed, and thorough exploration of the topic, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.

u/IM_BAD_PEOPLE · 1 pointr/worldnews

>That viewpoint makes sense from someone who learns about the Euro from the news

It's not from the news, it's basic economics. Removing control of a countries currency takes away their greatest tool in combating recessions and downturns. Not having your own currency also makes you puppet to the decisions of your new central bank as explained below.

When the downturn happened and it's subsequent bailouts the EU turned private debt into public debt and then issued it to everyday people in the name of austerity programs. Then tried to restart the system with permanent liquidity through the central bank to the sum of 13 trillion dollars in the bond market and 10 trillion in fiscal support. They've now generated somewhere in the ballpark of 40 trillion dollars worth of negative yielding assets. Certainly sounds like a system that is performing well right? It get's worse.

Now that you've injected massive amounts of capital into the system, where is the inflation? Look at the wage share of GDP in the Eurozone. Capital share has gone up, and labor share has plummeted. The only thing keeping it going now is massive liquidity injections and bond purchases all falling squarely on the backs of the taxpayer.

The EU get's high marks here, because real wages in the eurozone are rising again ever so slightly because your Germans overlords have kept a lid on it through their own strong unions.

Where does that leave us. Now we have more capital in the market than can be invested, and the pool continues to grow. The average age of Europe continues to rise, now at 44 years old. I only point that out as old people tend to prefer conservative policies of low inflation due to fixed incomes, furthering current policy trends. The flaws exposed in the political and economic union within the EU during the downturn should fill you with terror, and have you praying that it never happens again. However the current conditions being created by your central bank make that event as close to a statistical certainty.

I don't get my economic knowledge from the news, but it sounds like you do. Traveling around Europe gives you exactly zero knowledge or expertise on the subject.



I recommend you start here.

Then give this a read for some perspective on why national currencies should be the first bastion of defense for a republic.

It's bed time for me and while my tone has been mostly argumentative, I need to concede a few points. I have to admit that the US is heading for single payer healthcare, and the prospect of knowing that no citizen will face dying or financial ruin due to the unavailability of healthcare coverage fills my cold heart with joy. I just want it's implementation to be economically viable and sustainable. This half hearted shit with the ACA won't work anymore.

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/ukpolitics

>And I'm pointing out that it really isn't low

Okay I'll change what I said to:

"Govt debt to GDP ratio still isn't high by historical standards"

My point was that the debt to GDP ratio isn't so high that it couldn't go any higher, such as due to a recession.

Austerity was a political choice, not a necessity. See this book about Austerity or any lecture by Mark Blyth about austerity on YouTube. Also Google for Modern Monetary Theory while you're at it.

> As for Japan, their economy runs a bit differently to ours. Their central bank owns more assets than the value of their economy, plus most of that debt is domestic.

Japan's net debt to GDP is still about twice ours.

u/CheeseMakerThing · 1 pointr/ukpolitics

> My point was that the debt to GDP ratio isn't so high that it couldn't go any higher, such as due to a recession.

Ignore anything before 1865. That is not the stick to measure against for historical records as the structure of the economy was wildly different. Since 1865, a period of time where the economy of the UK was starting to resemble what it does today, the only times where it has been the result of international crises.

>My point was that the debt to GDP ratio isn't so high that it couldn't go any higher, such as due to a recession.

It can go higher, sure. That isn't necessarily a good thing though and, given the constraints we've put on ourselves into, it won't be nearly as manageable without drastic restructuring.

>Austerity was a political choice, not a necessity.

What is the relevancy of this? We are not on about the policies of the United States or Weimar Republic we're on about the circumstances that lead to the GDP-Debt ratio in the UK being higher than it was now, namely the Great Depression and two world wars.

>See this book about Austerity or any lecture by Mark Blyth about austerity on YouTube. Also Google for Modern Monetary Theory while you're at it.

No, because a) it's entirely irrelevant to the discussion, b) I have other things to do and c) I am more than aware of MMT, Keynsian economics and the drawbacks of austerity already.

> Japan's net debt to GDP is still about twice ours.

And most of that is still held domestically.

u/cruyff8 · 1 pointr/dataisbeautiful

> I'll tell you this, you've been sold a bill of goods that says spending huge amounts of money will fix everything.

No, I never intended to imply that it would fix everything.

Today, the immediate problem is that there aren't enough jobs because business isn't spending. There is an entity that can spend without worrying about profit; indeed this is its mandate, in my opinion. This is the government. Ergo, it ought to spend this economy by purchasing everything made until such point that private businesses or consumers start spending again.

The deficit, etc. is a longer-term problem. It's akin to your child refusing to eat their morning cereal, so you stop serving them food altogether, assuming their hunger will kick in, forcing them to somehow figure out how to cook and feed themselves. It just does not work.

Read Mark Blyth's Austerity: the History of a Dangerous Idea where he explains why. The tl;dr of the work is that what I'd outlined above.