Hosted by Abe Proctor.  Joe Uris is still on vacation.

The austerity kick in Washington is exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. At a time of enormous economic duress, the government is tying its own hands, robbing itself of its most effective tool in periods of high unemployment and low demand -- spending. Abandoning Keynsian economics has always carried a high human cost -- and now we know it's bad politics, too.

With Joe on hiatus, Abe surveys the economic, social and political wreckage of the new age of austerity.

A Listener suggested reading about the Economist, Richard Wolff...