It doesn't work and it hurts the poor...

THE IMF has held up its hands and admitted it got it wrong when calculating the effects of austerity in Ireland.

The organisation said that it completely underestimated how the Irish economy would perform under strict spending rules.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in an academic report that it believed for every €100 of austerity through higher taxes and spending cuts — this would impact €50 in terms of growth and unemployment.

However, the real effect meant that the austerity cut €90 to €150 out of the system.

The admission is likely to make Finance Minister Michael Noonan's job far more difficult ahead of yet another austerity budget in December.

"[The IMF] said in an academic report that it believed..." Yes, an academic report by deep-thinking academics, people who know the science of wealth and money, people who have the numbers down. But the truth of the matter can be found in one sentence near the end of a book, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, by the South Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang:

Economics, as it has been practised in the last three decades, has been positively harmful for most people.

Thanks goes to Gregory Heinz for the tip.