The pro-austerity argument is pure assertion, but it is meant to be a testable assertion, so econometricians have been busy trying to prove that the less the government spends, the faster the economy will grow. Indeed, just a year or two ago, “expansionary fiscal contraction” was all the rage, and a massive research effort went into proving its existence.
赞同紧缩的论点纯粹只是一个主张，但它应该是一个可测量的主张，所以计量经济学家一直忙于证明政府支出越少，经济增长越快。确实，仅一两年前，“扩张性财政紧缩”论调曾风靡一时，大量的研究被用来证明这一论点。