Why Austerity isn't Enough

"No more austerity! Judging from recent European election results, that's the message presently being shouted at European politicians all over the old continent. It's a mantra echoed across the Atlantic by Americans such as Paul Krugman. Austerity, they argue, isn't just ineffective as a solution to Europe's economic woes. It's also providing, so they say, conservatives with the cover they need to do what they're always wanted to do: dismantle by stealth that most sacred of social democratic cows -- the welfare state."