Except that major spending cuts during a downturn are harmful, which is what Greece has been in pretty much since austerity. Greece has problems, I admit, but a

Except that major spending cuts during a downturn are harmful, which is what Greece has been in pretty much since austerity. Greece has problems, I admit, but austerity during a downturn only makes that worse. Party comes along and says it wants to do invest in the economy because, clearly, austerity isn't working and we won't give them a chance. There are reports from the IMF and many other leading figures that now say austerity has had more of a negative impact than once thought. Greece has been cutting its spending or else it wouldn't have been given more money, as per the terms of the bail out. The effects of those cuts have been mediocre and, in fairness, harmful. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/26/imf-inequality-economic-growth http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/26/imf-inequali... http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/15/focus-on-low-income-families-to-boost-economic-growth-says-imf-study http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/15/focus-on-low... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/10/12/imf-austerity-is-much-worse-for-the-economy-than-we-thought/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/10/12/i... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/18/austerity-may-help-growth-during-good-times-but-man-does-it-hurt-during-bad-times/feed/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/18/a... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22223190 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22223190 http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-04-18/faq-reinhart-rogoff-and-the-excel-error-that-changed-history http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-04-18/faq-reinhart...