Mark Blyth on Austerity

A Watson Institute video on the global trend toward Austerity budgets featuring Mark Blyth.
Directed by Joe Posner.

Produced by
Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies (watsoninstitute.org) in association with the Global Conversation (globalconversation.org) and Global Media Project (globalmediaproject.net).

Mark Blyth is a professor of International Political Economy at Brown University and faculty fellow at its Watson Institute for International Studies. He is writing "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2011.

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[Raynes79]

What do you mean the 2 Trillion has to be paid. It was created out of thin air in the first place. How about we cancle the world debt, hang these greedy fucking bankers and start printing and issueing debt free money. Problem solved. No such thing as can't.

[kromed01]

Austerity is being used because it is working. It is bankrupting nation states so that their assets can be stripped from them and sold off at rock bottom prices for more money created out of thin air by the bankers. Yes you read it right austerity is working. It just isn't working for you as you aren't a banker.

[GaryVolts]

The orginal sin was bailing out the banks. They should have let the bad ones fail, and let the goods ones take over. The losses should have gone to the owners of those banks. Now that they government has "saved us" by bailing out the banks, there is no choice but to cut back on services. Hey being dependant on other people for your livelyhood is never a good idea, and it's even worse now. It IS the hang over, and now people living off the government must take less than before.

[DavidByrne85]

^smart man.

[Tyler H]

True, but the economy (and society) works a whole lot better when debt is a thing.

[Tyler H]

What makes them more greedy than you or me? I don't see where you are getting that assumption, beyond the observation that they are trying to get the best deal as possible for themselves. But that's what everyone does. So again, why are "bankers" greedier than anyone else?

[LLORT3]

Austerity is rich white males eating too much and making the rest of us go on a diet.

[Raynes79]

How am I a twat? The economy does not have to be debt based. That's a choice not an act of nature. Wake the fuck up moron.

[carlo88moe]

okay, why dont we just scrap the whole IDEA of debt altogether...wtf....world economy is based on debt you twat...

[Blazer433]

Bankers are the greediest of people.