If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Have you ever wondered why public services are slashed to pay off debts that were actually created by private banks?
- Did you know that the economic logic behind austerity has been repeatedly debunked, yet it remains the primary tool for managing global financial crises?
- Are you curious about who really benefits when a country 'tightens its belt'—and why working-class families are always the ones left holding the bill?
Listen to Austerity — Free Audiobook
Key Takeaways from Austerity
- Understand why austerity—reducing government spending to boost the economy—actually shrinks economies, increases national debt, and disproportionately harms the lower classes.
- Recognize the danger of treating a national economy like a household budget; discover why widespread simultaneous spending cuts cause businesses to fail and economic growth to stall.
- Explore historical evidence from the Great Depression and post-WWI Germany to see why slashing national budgets consistently fails to heal struggling economies.
- Learn the true cause of the 2008 global financial crash: reckless US banking practices involving mortgage defaults, CDOs, and credit default swaps, rather than government overspending.
- Find out how already vulnerable European nations worsened their own economic crises by choosing to bail out failing banks with public money.
Learning Tools
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Austerity — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Austerity weakens a nation's economy and harms the lower classes the most.
Chapter 3: History clearly shows austerity fails to restore growth in the national economy.
Chapter 4: The recent financial crisis resulted from U.S. banks’ risky practices and mass mortgage defaults nationwide.
Chapter 5: EU countries were struggling already, but further worsened matters when they bailed out the banks repeatedly.
Chapter 6: Ireland struggled under austerity, while Iceland thrived by allowing its banks to fail completely instead.
Chapter 7: Viable alternatives to austerity can aid the many, even if they disadvantage the few at times.
Austerity Summary & Overview
Austerity (2013) cuts through the confusion behind our recent financial crises and reveals what really happens when economists call for a policy of austerity to be implemented. This is when budgets are cut, public funding is slashed and working-class families suffer so that banks can be saved and continue to make billions. Find out what’s really going on and who’s really being protected when your country gets pushed into austerity.
Who Should Listen to Austerity?
- Students of political science and economics
- Readers who want a better understanding of the recent banking crisis
- Activists fighting against the top 1 percent
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