The “fiscal cliff” is one of my least favorite metaphors for an actual policy-making disaster. As the precipice nears, state governments are, naturally, starting to panic (California has its very own fiscal cliff also coming in January 2013, if a key ballot measure fails). NBCNews.com has a story on this panic: “States are closely linked to…
Category: Austerity
Austerity, then and now
I saved this article almost a year ago, but I came back to it while thinking of how things in Europe have unfolded over that year, and how austerity has become a more loaded term across the Atlantic, even as it . Cowell begins by lamenting (I think, his tone is hard to gauge) that…
“The Municipal Sandwich”
The municipal bond market’s view of city budget woes, via Goodwin Procter’s take on the Pew report about struggling cities (which is worth reading): A recent report issued by The Pew Charitable Trusts American Cities Project describes how the Great Recession has sandwiched municipalities between an increased demand for services and an inability to raise…
Analysis: Aid recipients welcome IMF’s shift on austerity | Reuters
I think this one’s worth including in its entirety: (Reuters) – Graduates of IMF emergency loan programs accepted the Fund’s admission that it miscalculated the cost of austerity with a mix of schadenfreude and frustration that the change came too late to spare them economic pain.
IMF changes its tune on austerity
For many, the word austerity is inextricably linked to the international development community: IMF and World Bank policies that required austerity policies – often draconian in their social impacts – in exchange for development financing and other aid. The IMF is now grappling with a different part of the globe: the withering crises of the…