Comments about ‘World leaders weigh stimulus vs. austerity at G-20’

Austerity is problematic when you're in a recession because firing gov't workers isn't going to do a thing to help your unemployment problem when you're just adding more workers who lost jobs and reducing welfare would just make it harder for people to get to a point where they can actually buy things beyond just food again which is important since demand is what sustains private sector jobs and since everyone's busy reducing credit card and student loan debt or rebuilding their savings, that's money not going into the economy. Ideally we should spent more in tough economic times and cut back in the good times when we can much more easily afford it.