Austerity - 'worse than a crime, it is a blunder'

'Austerity has failed. It turned a nascent recovery into stagnation. That imposes huge and unnecessary costs, not just in the short run, but also in the long term: the costs of investments unmade, of businesses not started, of skills atrophied, and of hopes destroyed,' writes Martin Wolf in a scathing critique of the fiscal and political policies which have led to economic retrenchment across Europe:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jul/11/how-austerity-has-failed/?pagination=false&printpage=true