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CONTENTS
1 Cover
3 Introduction: Debt, Deficits and Austerity A Citizen’s Guide Austerity Politics Austerity in Practice Austerity Politics and Reality
4 1 We Must Live Within Our Means The Myth Itself What Are Our Means? How Governments Borrow Public Sector Auto-Finance From Myth to Reality
5 2 Governments Must Balance Their Books The Myth Itself Budget Uncertainty Why Do Governments Tax? From Myth to Reality
6 3 We Must Tighten Our Belts The Myth Itself The Affordability Fallacy Social Protection and Equity From Myth to Reality
7 4 Never Go into Debt The Myth Itself Why Debt Accumulates Debt and the Economic Cycle Myth and Reality
8 5 Taxes Are a Burden The Myth Itself The Eponymous Taxpayer Taxes in the Concrete From Myth to Reality
9 6 Austerity: There is No Alternative The Myth Itself Public Debt Disasters Euro Debt Crisis and the TINA Principle Fear of Deficits and Inflation From Myth to Reality
10 7 Always an Alternative Decommissioning Exchange Rates Decommissioning Monetary Policy Decommissioning Fiscal Policy There is an Alternative: Democracy
11 Index
List of Tables
1 Chapter 5Table 5.1 Distribution of central government expenditures, Germany, United Kingdom and Uni…
List of Illustrations
1 IntroductionFigure 0.1 Public revenue minus spending for the United States, 1950–2018, percentage of gr…Figure 0.2 Public revenue minus spending for the United Kingdom, 1950–2017, percentage of g…Figure 0.3 Index of total public expenditure, United Kingdom and United States, 2000–2017Figure 0.4 Index of total public expenditure, four major eurozone countries, 2000–2017Figure 0.5 Index of total public expenditure, three austerity-implementing eurozone countri…
2 Chapter 2Figure 2.1 Balancing a simple economy that has one partFigure 2.2 Balancing a more complete economy that has two partsFigure 2.3 Balancing a complete three-part economyFigure 2.4 Automatic stabilization of the UK economy, public and private lending/borrowing,…Figure 2.5 Managing the economy into the Goldilocks Zone
3 Chapter 3Figure 3.1 Public pension payments in six high-income countries, 1991–2013Figure 3.2 Ratio of disposable income to original income, United Kingdom and United States,…Figure 3.3 Ratio of disposable income and final income to original income, United Kingdom, …
4 Chapter 4Figure 4.1 Household income, expenditure and debtFigure 4.2 “Delinquent” loans of US commercial banks by type, 1998–2017Figure 4.3 United States: federal, non-financial corporate, and household debt as share of …Figure 4.4 United Kingdom: federal, nonfinancial corporate, and household debt as share of …Figure 4.5 Germany: all government, nonfinancial corporate, and household debt as a share o…Figure 4.6 Governments grow out of debt: debt to GDP ratio for the United Kingdom and the U…
5 Chapter 5Figure 5.1 Per capita income and per capita tax for twenty countries, all levels of governm…Figure 5.2 Government taxes on US, UK and German households by income quintile, mid-2010sFigure 5.3 Percentage distribution of tax revenue by type, EU, Germany, UK and US, 2015Figure 5.4 Distribution of the US federal government debt, 2017Figure 5.5 Distribution of the UK government gross debt, 2017
6 Chapter 6Figure 6.1 Value of debt defaults, 1980–2016Figure 6.2 Interest rates on long-term public bonds, seven eurozone countries and the UK, 2…Figure 6.3 Two components of the US consumer price index, 2000–2017Figure 6.4 Two components of the UK consumer price index, 2000–2017
