Is the tide turning on the idea of austerity?

• Philip Pilkington takes issue with this week’s New York Times feature story on how well the Latvians are enduring austerity.
• The IMF thinks Latvia has gone too far.
• Last week, IMF Director Christine Legarde warned Germany to go slower in making cuts.
• And, yesterday, it (the IMF) acknowledged in a new paper that ““Forecasters significantly underestimated the increase in unemployment and the decline in domestic demand associated with fiscal consolidation,” — a finding that it began to unroll last fall.
• Former EC Commissioner Lord Mandelson warns of the obvious. Brookings experts recently reviewed Eurozone progress. Martin Edwards gives his take here.
• For those inclined, check out Mark Blyth’s talk last month at the Penn Social Science and Policy Forum on his forthcoming book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. If you jump to the 9th segment, you’ll get to his discussion of these most current trends — including Latvia.

Dan here: also check out this post by John Quiggin on the fiscal  multiplier.