“Tales of Fiscal Adjustment” brings together the claims made in this body of research and distills them into a few simple policy lessons. As Alesina and Ardanga put it, “Three ingredients seem to be important for a successful, long-lasting expansionary fiscal adjustment. It must combine spending cuts in transfers, welfare programs and the government wage bill, some form of … wage moderation, and a devaluation immediately before the fiscal tightening.” Raising taxes in a recession, as noted already, is said to simply make things worse. As such, a new form of TINA returns—there is no alternative to cuts.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 464