Third-quarter unemployment data from Eurostat, Europe’s statistical agency, provides still more proof actual cuts in teh size of government — what I call “real austerity” — contributes to real economic growth. Baltic countries continued a three-yeear trend of decreasing unemployment. Those, primarily in Western Europe, who engaged in phone austerity – when government claims to have tightened its belt but actually increased overall spending and taxation — saw unemployment continue to increase.
Unlike their peers, Latvia and Estonia both made fast and deep reductions in government spending and in tax revenue during their 2009-2010 austerity programs. Unemployment spiked in 2009 as these economies took the painful-but-necessary steps to restructure themselves to become competitive and productive. Since then, their unemployment rates plummeted faster than any other European country throughout 2010 (the year following austerity’s initial implementation) and consistently have continued to decrease at faster rates than the Eurozone and European Union averages. To Read More…
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