Clarity about Austerity

Achieving a sustainable pattern of growth requires choices that affect not just the level of aggregate demand, but also its composition – for example, investment versus consumption. Whether one calls this austerity or something else is a matter of semantics, though the confusion that has resulted is anything but harmless.

MILAN – I have just had the privilege of speaking at the main annual conference of Germany’s Economic Council, the economic and business arm of the Christian Democratic Union, the current governing party. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble were among the other speakers. It was an interesting event – and, more important, an encouraging one.

https://prosyn.org/vGfM493