Mark Blyth is the author of Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. He is professor of international political economy at Brown University.

Bad History

In the midst of slow economic growth, governments in the U.S. and Europe are slashing spending and raising taxes – with disastrous results. But instead of blaming American Republicans or British Tories, the author of a new book on the history of austerity says the intellectual culprits lie in 18th century Scotland.