In this, the fifth year of a prolonged downturn triggered by a financial crash, the prevailing view is that we all must pay for yesterdays excess. This case is made in both economic and moral terms. Nations and households ran up unsustainable debts; these obligations must be honored to satisfy creditors, restore market confidence, deter future recklessness and compel people and nations to live within their means. A phrase often heard is moral hazard, a concept borrowed by economists from the insurance industry. In its original usage, the term referred to the risk that insuring against an adverse event would...
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http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/austerity_never_works_deficit_hawks_are_amoral_and_wrong/?source=Patrick.net