"Austerity occurs when the cost of government borrowing becomes so high governments are would be functionally unable to operate in the medium term without brini

"Austerity occurs when the cost of government borrowing becomes so high governments are would be functionally unable to operate in the medium term without brining it down." Given that the 'cost of government borrowing' is a policy setting, there can therefore never be a case for 'austerity'. See Japan for details. There is no traditional market in government bonds. The only aggregate alternative to the fixed rate is the expected path of the floating rate and the floating rate is set by the central bank. Which we can easily set permanently to zero once we reject the failed 'twin star' economic hypothesis and accept the 'price anchor' hypothesis.