Debtors' prison : the politics of austerity versus possibility / Robert Kuttner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kuttner, Robert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Debt.

Budget deficits.

Government spending policy.

Consumption (Economics).

Physical Description:

331 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.

Summary:

"A timely, broadly revisionist, essential book by one of our foremost economic observers takes down one of the most cherished tenets of contemporary financial thinking: that spending less, refusing to forgive debt, and shrinking government--"austerity"--is a solution to the current economic crisis. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, too much of our conversation about economic recovery has centered on the question of debt: whether we have too much of it, when to forgive it, and how to cut the deficit. Robert Kuttner makes the most powerful argument to date that these are the wrong questions and that austerity is the wrong solution. Blending economics with historical examples of effective debt relief and punitive debt enforcement, he makes clear that universal belt-tightening, as a prescription for recession, simply defies economic logic. Just as debtor's prisons once prevented individuals from working and thus being able to pay back their debts, austerity measures shackle, rather than restore, economic growth as the weight of past debt crushes the economy's future potential. Above all, Kuttner shows how austerity serves only the interest of creditors--the very bankers and financial elites whose actions precipitated the collapse. Lucid, authoritative, provocative--a book that is certain to be widely read and much debated"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1

1 Agony Economics 15

2 The Great Deflation 35

3 The Allure of Austerity 51

Part 2

4 A Tale of Two Wars 77

5 European Disunion 105

6 A Greek Tragedy 136

Part 3

7 The Moral Economy of Debt 173

8 A Home of One's Own 207

9 The Third World's Revenge 238

10 Back to the Future 272.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780307959805

0307959805

OCLC:

806016021