By the middle of 2011, empirical and theoretical support for expansionary austerity was slipping away. Even current members of the Bocconi School began to defect. Especially significant here was a piece by Roberto Perotti. Although he is critical of the new methodology employed by the IMF to question the case for expansionary austerity, Perotti nonetheless argues that almost all the time cutting your way to growth doesn’t work, at least in the short run.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 580