Austerity illusion

The IMF, since the 1970s has been austerity's biggest sale-agent. Cut public expenditure and the private sector will pick up the slack. There! Like magic you can grow trees on a few coins of IMF Structural Adjustment Support. For the developing world, the result was deep crisis in 1982. For Mexico, the result was default in 1994. For Asia, near economic death in 2002. Argentina destroyed its economic base in 2002, not forgetting the thousands tortured and killed, as IMF supported Chicago School austerity destroyed South America. In Zimbabwe, the 1990s IMF pogrom was a wake up call.

 Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Greece are on their knees. The IMF bent their ears now total economic disaster stalks once productive nations.' Buyer beware' should apply to all IMF policy proscriptions. In all cases of austerity failing, the technocrats have a chain of 'academic' excuses. What they fail to express is austerity moves resources from low productive activities which are essential(The State). The latter is replaced by primitive zero-productive destructive activities like: capital flight, hoarding, currency speculation, tax evasion, cross subsidisation, transfer pricing, wage reductions, unnecessary cost-cutting and outright exploitation. 

The rich, by themselves, are not the creators of wealth. Instead, they hoard and speculate recklessly if State intervention is reduced or inexistent. With State intevention, they can be forced into real productive pursuits. The goal of austerity is to dis-empower The State, creating less regulation for financial accumulation. It is thus no surprise Quantitative Easing has failed spectacularly, as billions are hoarded in bank vaults. It is small businesses that employ the largest numbers of people and these are the true creators of medium term and long term growth. Without The State, small business is crowded out leading to austerity induced crises and recession. Big business can sit on billions and not create an ounce of extra-their objective is to hoard or bulk up balance sheets. Primitive stacking will not create real growth-it is an economic leakage. So like all others UK austerity will fail.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". In reality, austerity is a propaganda sold to the people to dignify wealth extraction. The insanity is the public keeps buying into this wealth by on austerity agenda.