Official: High Priests of Austerity Can't Add Up - the wrong maths that made us suffer

paul
Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:44:49 +0000
Capitalist crisis, Economy, International, Newsroom, News, Paul B

Unless you're a economics geek you've probably never heard of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. But that doesn't mean their work isn't affecting your life. A paper by these two prestigious Harvard economists has been a key justification for post-2008 austerity policies, with its oft-repeated claim that a national debt level of over 90% of GDP is fatal to growth. Yesterday we found out that paper was based on a spreadsheet that doesn't add up. Epic maths fail.