Austerity

Listener Reviews

1. 5.0(1)

   Excellent Book

   An excellent interesting book about austierity, it's history how we got here today almost sixteen years since the 2008 and how austerity simony increased and empower extreme movements rather than decreasing it that polarization today has more to do with the economic environment and lack of jobs and cutbacks and assessing austierity in many forms an excellent book.

   Jo M P · November 24, 2024

2. 5.0(1)

   Fundamental info for me

   Fundamental info for me with many examples and explanations. Despite books like this, right wing governments in my country (Czechia) does this aproach again and again.

   Vivian Beck · August 26, 2024

3. 5.0(1)

   Every politician needs to read this book

   Any additional comments?

   This book explains the history of economic austerity and how it has never worked and why it will never work. The author uses in-depth and sometimes complicated economic rationale to explain why but I think that is what lends so much legitimacy to his argument. I will admit it is not for the feeble minded but it is also not so complicated that the average concerned person can’t understand. He gives the reader a complete analysis of why public spending cuts never lead to economic growth and typically fuel rising debt instead of lowering it. He further details how the global financial crisis is really a private crisis of the banking sector and not a problem of public spending run amok. It is glaringly obvious that governments have allowed the finance industry to needlessly gamble and in many cases, have been forced to bail them out with public money. This book allowed me to finally understand the real reasons behind the European debt crisis and how much of it extends from several structural flaws in the Euro. I have read a number of books on the 2008/2009 financial crisis and I would say this is the best one yet. This really brought everything together for me as it really gets to the "why" behind a lot of the problems we see today. I like his analysis of Iceland at the end and I wish he had written much more on the topic. My only complaint is that the author quotes a number of economic theorists and sometimes it is hard to determine if he is still talking about their opinion or his own. Every politician should read this book and understand how cuts to public spending almost never produce the desired economic growth.

   Tonya Michael · August 8, 2023

4. 4.0(1)

   Much needed perspective

   I studied business administration and finance in college. While I was there I had a hard time understanding a lot of classical economic ideas. This book among others like “Debt 5000 the 1st years” really put things into perspective for me. The focus on austerity is timely and a great frame work to understand other economic ideas of our age. There’s a lot of misunderstanding about classical economics. This is one of few books that helps people outside of the field to navigate the tricky political oceans.

   Dulce Brooks · April 27, 2022

5. 5.0(1)

   A good overview

   This can get a little hard to follow if you're not up on the last few decades of EU monetary kerfuffles, but the book isn't setting out to be an intro to international monetary policy. I thought his arguments were well laid out and supported with real world case studies, though I'm predisposed to agree with his conclusions. The writing style is accessible and not too dry, and the narrator is pleasant.

   Maranda Cartwright · March 8, 2022

6. 5.0(1)

   Brilliant

   I'm somewhate familiar with Mark Blyth thanks to youtubin action. Wish he would have narrated it personally with his Scottish accent. Oh well. Still a great listen.

   Karina Stanford · May 11, 2021

7. 4.0(1)

   Great ideas, terrible voice over talent

   Mark Blyth essentially gives these ideas away for free in his numerous YouTube videos on the subject. I had hoped for more content that isn't part of his numerous recorded lectures - this was disappointing in that respect. Also, having watched a number of these videos, Blyth has a distinctive rhythm and tone to his speech, and that comes across in his writing as well. Unfortunately, the narrator, Fred Stella, seems to be doing his best to imitate a machine trying to imitate human speech. He takes an already dense subject and makes it almost unlistenable. Just search for Mark Blyth on YouTube and watch the top five results. You'll get all the same information and hear it in Blyth's inimitable Glaswegian.

   Jennie Small · July 17, 2020

8. 5.0(1)

   good read boring at times.

   lots of information, found it hard to absorb all of it will listen to again.

   Brooklyn Manley · March 21, 2019