The question of whether austerity is a dangerous idea has been a hotly contested argument for decades now. With some seeing it as potentially detrimental to country’s economic structure, while others regard it as a necessary policy needed to bring the government out of financial disaster in drastic times where no other options are available other than the measures mentioned during austerity such as cutting expenditure, raising taxes, and bailing out banks. Austerity process is the actions normally pursued if there is a risk that a government can’t hold up its debt obligations. This might arise when a government has borrowed in currencies from foreign nations (Economist 2015). Austerity policies can also be attractive to the more affluent group …show more content…
In 2010, a vast recession resulted in the country being incapable of paying back its government debt without third-party backing. Therefore, in order to avert an insolvency crisis, Portugal requested applications for bail-out plans and took out €79 billion as a result. During late 2010, the Portuguese Government declared a new austerity deal following suit after other Eurozone countries, via a sequence of tax increases and salary reductions for public servants. As well, in 2010, the country attained its highest unemployment rate for over two decades of almost 11% and up to 15% during 2012, whereas the number of public servants continued to remain at a very high quantity (Peláez 2013). Following the announcement of the bailout, the Portuguese government Led by Pablo Coelho, succeeded in instigating actions to mend the State's financial situation and the nation began to see forthcoming improvements. After a period of increased poverty, low wages, pension cuts, and homelessness, Portugal began to strive once again, due to a surplus in 2016, Portugal wasn’t constrained by the excessive deficit procedure that had been employed in the economic crisis beforehand. The banking system was becoming increasingly stable, though there were withstanding non-performing loans and commercial debt. During 2016 Portuguese GDP reached $204 billion, up by about 2.7% from 2015, while …show more content…
Michael Schiavone, in his book ‘Austerity and the Labor Movement’ notes “The poster child for austerity and the damage it causes is Greece. Before it ran into trouble, Greece’s economy was not performing that badly. From 1996 to 2004 the Greek economy grew largely because of increased public spending, investment from the European Union, and lower costs in the capital markets” (Schiavone 2016, 28). It’s clear to see that before the global banking crisis, and the effects of austerity, Greece was a prosperous nation. It is widely regarded that Greece was one of the most countries that suffered the most. The crisis began in late 2009, prompted by the chaos of the Great Recession, organisational weaknesses in the Greek economy, and admissions that preceding data on government debt levels and deficits had been underestimated by the government (Higgins & Klitgaard 2016). It is mentioned in the book ‘Against the Troika, Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone’, that “The implications of the crisis and of the policies deployed by the troika as well as the awful predicament in which peripheral countries currently find themselves, are apparent in Greece, which has been affected more deeply than any other country in the Eurozone. The social impact of these developments has been simply
Without trade partners because of their currency, and by condemning new ideas that could advance them as a society, we can see a militarized camp with a sluggish and practically useless economy that is slowly digging its own grave. In Athens, the economic reforms brought on by Solon bolstered the economy, raising the purchasing power of money, encouraging sustainable economic growth. Going even further, he held the view that “if the freedom of each is the concern of all, then the polis must protect everyone against personal enslavement, even to the extent of ransoming (…) Athenians who had already spent many years as slaves in other lands” (Vlastos, 1946).
Many of the favelas have undergone renovations, and are not as much of an eyesore as they were in the 1960’s. Another positive thing happening in the favelas is the increase of medical care. The available healthcare mostly consists of basic immunizations and emergency care, however, that is a significant improvement compared to the 1960’s. The majority of people would agree that life in Rio de Janeiro is improving, but there are still years of work to be
The European Union is currently undergoing economic struggles within its countries. Since joining the EU, Greece’s
Proponents of austerity are not wrong in theory. If someone is loaned money, the intention is to have that loan payed back. Arguments for austerity lack plans for a stronger economy as a whole. The people of Greece need to work. They also should not retire early.
Another example of the effects of Greek agriculture on the national sentiment of the population can be seen in further articles about food production. The newspaper article titled, “Messinian Olive Oil Leads Greek Olive Oil Production by Evgenia Adamantopoulou gives a detailed description about olive oil throughout Greece. Olive oil is a staple food group in the country that provides farmers with money and the country with economic benefits from export profits. Yet, as a food, olive oil is a major part of Greek identity. Many families, restaurants, and other establishment will incorporate the olive oil into a variety of ethnically Greek foods.
To give a different outlook, President Roosevelt’s New Deal failed to bring the Great Depression to an end. The unemployment rates remained stagnant, and the economy was never properly stimulated to secure the private business and the banking sectors. Due to the importance of private business and banks in a free enterprise economy, the Federal neglect caused the United States to lag behind other nations in unemployment rates. Similarities were seen in France, primarily due to their social and economic policies causing their levels of industrial production to be lackluster (Best
Spain, after the collapse of 2008, saw a rise in the levels of personal debt. Although the public debt stood at 60% of the GDP, the problem was due to foreign exposure of private debt. Spanish banks were relying heavily on whole sale finance from abroad. Portugal had a large current account deficit and external debt which was fuelled by private sector borrowing. Greece, Portugal and Ireland were the worst hit whereas Spain & Italy were considered fiscally vulnerable economies.
The crisis is occurring solely because the patricians are trying to protect themselves from losing people to work in their fields from debt slavery. The are patricians making up fake wars because they know we will put a pin in our problems to fight for our Patria. The patricians are trying to make us believe that these armies are the issue at hand whereas the real is that once someone gets in it there is no way out. Unless the tribune happens to be in your vicinity at the time and chooses to make you invincible from debt slavery. Even then there is a good chance that you will not make enough money to free yourself from debt slavery.
Good morning everyone. We already know as AS English Language students, that English is constantly changing. It has developed and enriched over the course of time. There are many reasons for this language change. But, what I found particularly interesting is the influence of euphemisms in the way we change language according to what we think is appropriate to use and to avoid in certain situations.
The Twenty Years’ Crisis 1919-1939: An Introduction to the study of International Relations, the book for which E.H. Carr is perhaps most remembered was written just prior to the outbreak of World War Two (WWII). This particular work of Carr’s is primarily a study of the fundamentals of International Relations, which is exemplified especially by the events of the two decades before 1939, the year the book was published. In the Twenty Years Crisis, E.H. Carr explores the interplay of the worldview between Utopians and Realists. Carr’s work examines why the League of Nations and the peace as implemented by the Treaty of Versailles failed, ultimately resulting in WWII.
This is a problem for everyone in the country as everyone will be affected by whether or not the government changes the path that is going down or continue down the bad road of a very soon possible financial collapse. How bad really is our debt you might wonder. Well the debt is projected to be over 22 trillion dollars by 2021. In an increase of about 3 trillion dollars at our current rate in just 4 years. That would be more than 61 thousand dollars per citizen in the US but for every taxpayer it would be over 170 thousand dollars.
As mentioned earlier, Keynes policy measures ensured the economy got out of the great depression. Fundamental Keynesian economics states that ‘in the long run we are all dead’, so George Osborne clearly is not using economic rationale to base his 7/8th successive budget on. What the economy needs once again is a kick start. This already occurred in 1997 Japan, where the IVA tax was introduced to reduce public deficit, this resulted in a double dip recession which had the opposite of the desired effect (reduce public debt) and actually it increased for the next ten years (Boyer, 2012). Keynes (1936) recognised that employment is dependent on the level of effective demand and therefore it is influenced by investment decisions, the argument Benassy (1982) says is: when full employment does not happen and the unemployment is classical (because of the excess of real wages over marginal productivity).
Although the days of rage have receded, the euro crisis which came along and hampered the economies of the Eurozone showed a very clear message— Joining the Eurozone is no guarantee for success. The euro and its competitive differences, caused some economies to grow, and the others to stumble severely, resulting in two very different social outcomes. Yet, it was never the problem of the euro. Throughout the crisis, the euro had been remarkably stable.
It was evident that Greece has a dept, cannot print Euros and has lost market access. Greece had to ask financial assistance in order to cover its financial needs. Greece as a Eurozone country, would ask financial assistance from the family of the Euro Area Member States (EAMS). However, the EU did not have the technique and the framework for the solution of such situations. Because of that, EU had to search other possibilities such as bilateral loans by other member states and assistance by the IMF.
During my studies I decided to read the novel “Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea”, by Mark Blyth. The reason I picked this book for my review over the rest of the books is because the concept of austerity really interested me. In simple terms austerity is the reducing of expenditure in order to help an economic crisis. Blyth defines it at the start of the novel as “ a form of voluntary deflation in which the economy adjusts through the reduction of wages, prices and public spending to restore competitiveness which is (supposedly) best achieved by cutting the state’s budget, debts and deficits”(pg2). Throughout the book Blyth discusses in three ways how the practice of austerity is negative.