Fiscal Austerity in Europe Doesn't Mean Large Spending Cuts | Mercatus

Link: http://mercatus.org/publication/fiscal-austerity-europe-doesnt-mean-large-spending-cuts?UA-2082207-2 (via shareaholic.com)

Most importantly, meaningful structural reforms were seldom implemented. Whenever cuts took place, they were always overwhelmed with large counterproductive tax increases.

This so-called balanced approach—some spending cuts for large tax increases—has been proven to be a recipe for disaster by economists. It fails to stabilize the debt, and it is more likely to cause economic contractions.