The Toll of Austerity in Europe

The NYT had an interesting piece giving profiles of several young people who are struggling to find full time jobs in Europe. All of the people profiled have college degrees, several have considerably more education.

While the article notes that the situation faced by these young people is the result of the weak economy following the crash in 2008, it would have been helpful to point out that this weakness is the result of policy choices by Europe's leaders. They have deliberately decided to run low budget deficits in spite of the fact that most of the continent is operating well below its potential. Long-term interest rates are very low and inflation remains below the European Central Bank's 2.0 percent target, which itself is absurdly low.

In short, the plight of these young people and tens of millions of others should be seen as the fruit of the economic policy pursued by dogmatic leaders across Europe. It is not something that just happened.