We are once again learning the hard way that this kind of austerity, when applied in the teeth of a major financial crisis, leads only to depression. This insight should have been common knowledge; it was, after all, a major lesson of the austerity policies of President Herbert Hoover in the United States and Chancellor Heinrich Brüning in Weimar Germany in the early 1930’s.
我们再一次以沉重的代价了解到，这种紧缩如果在严重金融危机的当口实施只能导致萧条。这一洞见本应该是常识；毕竟，20世纪30年代美国总统胡佛和魏玛德国首相布吕宁都为我们提供了这方面的前车之鉴。不幸的是，这一点大家都学会了，唯独被德国忘记了。