But the desire to apply austerity is not just ideological, although it is that. There are also good material reasons for the continuing application of austerity, especially in Europe—that is, clearing space on the balance sheet of sovereigns in case one of the region’s too big to bail banks goes bust. What began as a banking crisis in the United States continues as one in Europe. The euro has turbocharged this problem by effectively turning the twenty-first-century European economy into a classical gold standard.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 617