"Austerity Now" is the Brussels Consensus, though it might well be a remake of a famous Coppola movie from the 70s, starring Marlon Brando.

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman

If the ECB and IMF were not demanding Austerity Now!, then we wouldn't be having this discussion, because Ireland would be perfectly able to repay the debt in due time. But Austerity Now! is what is being demanded, and what will cause Ireland to default. Well, better to default now, and let the people who are demanding Austerity Now! eat the losses, than first crash the Irish economy and then default, leaving the Irish public in a smoking crater and the people who are demanding Austerity Now! still eating very nearly the same losses.

Defaulting is a zero-sum game. Not defaulting is a negative-sum game.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.