ABSTRACT
Introduction As King et al. (2012, editorial, p. 1) argued in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, present conditions are painfully synonymous with an unprecedented global economic crisis. Yet, the policy responses do not lack for precedent. States and international organizations (such as the IMF or the World Bank) have looked to crises of the past. Austerity has therefore become an all-toofamiliar theme all over the world (ibid.). Austerity is indeed high on the agenda of political leaders five years into the global crisis. The trade-off between growth and fiscal consolidation has become a burning issue in Europe and elsewhere. The situation is unprecedented, as policy leaders are now facing a post-crisis conundrum. We analyse the NMC stance towards fiscal policy, and the reasons why the latter framework has become conceptually inadequate in the present extraordinary context. In the light of the painful experience of the Great Depression, we evoke new initiatives, such as the Roosevelt 2012 citizen manifesto in France, and we browse through various institutional sources, such as a report on the economic performance of the UK or the ‘World of Work Report 2012’, published by the International Institute for Labour Studies, an emanation of the International Labour Organization.1 We try to understand the extent of the macroeconomic problems experienced by Spain, and we briefly address issues that were never brought up by proponents of the NMC, such as massive youth unemployment, despair and suicides incurred by job instability, the rise of right-ring populist movements in Europe. We also allude to the shifting views emanating from temples of orthodoxy, such as the IMF. The idea for this chapter is to go beyond the mere (mainstream) economic perspective, that has monopolized the debate over the growth vs austerity debate for too long. By the same token, we hope that this discussion will help go beyond the confines of the NMC. It is a personal essay that would deserve to be elaborated upon, notably with the help of the crossfertilization of ideas from a multitude of perspectives.
