As we shall see, if one starts from the premise that investment and growth flow from confidence, then one misses this point rather completely. What matters is a “fallacy of composition” problem, not a confidence problem, in which what is true about the whole is not true about the parts. This runs counter to common sense and much current economic policy, but it is vitally important that we appreciate this idea since it is the third reason austerity is a dangerous concept: we cannot all be austere at once. All that does is shrink the economy for everyone.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 45