A beautiful photographic essay about austerity in Greece, where unemployment has reached 21.8%, and over 50% for those under 25. Portraits of Greece in Crisis – In Focus – The Atlantic.
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The Chicago School on austerity versus stimulus
A professor from the Chicago School has a column on the New York Times’ Economix blog describing his thoughts on austerity versus stimulus. I use the word “thoughts” deliberately, because this isn’t an article about evidence. It contrasts growth and redistribution, which is a common framework of those who believe austerity is the only way…
Andrew Sullivan, deficit hawk, acknowledges austerity’s dangers
I don’t like this conclusion. I start from the belief that government should run surpluses in good times so that they can have some fiscal lee-way for stimulus in bad times. Readers know I deeply oppose government debt outside of structural investment, i.e. unsustainable entitlements and unsustainable empire. But if premature or excessive austerity actually…
Philadelphia School District dissolves in the face of crisis, literally
Philadelphia’s public schools have been hammered by state budget cuts, so the District is stepping down from responsibility for managing the schools. What does that mean for the actual schools? “Philadelphia public schools is not the School District,” Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen told a handful of reporters at yesterday’s press conference laying out the…
State higher education spending sees big decline – Boston.com
State funding for higher education has declined because of a slow recovery from the recession and the end of federal stimulus money, according to a study released Monday. Overall, spending declined by some $6 billion, or nearly 8 percent, over the past year, according to the annual Grapevine study by the Center for the Study…