Word Origins: “Austerians”
Sometime over the past two weeks, the word “Austerians” burst onto the blogosphere.
A play on the fiscal reserve of the “Austrian” school of economic thought (Friedrich Hayek or Ludwig von Mises) the phrase Austerians referred to the desire to slash government spending and cut deficits during a time of economic weakness or recession.
Economix credited the term to Mark Thoma (who blogs at Economist’s View). His first mention appears to have been on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 04:23 AM in “Paradox of Thrift” versus “Confidence in the Markets”. I mentioned Thoma and the word coinage in Martin Wolf’s FT discussion “When Should Fiscal Tightening Begin?“.
That started an email deluge as to the origin of the word. Several readers told me it was much older than June 17, 2010. So I pinged Professor Thoma, and he said he had no idea about the origin – he was just trying to make a somewhat dry discussion of budget balancing during difficult economic times more entertaining — not create a new phrase.
Mark noted that someone in his comment stream claimed to have heard this used earlier at Naked Capitalism. So I pinged Yves Smith, and she directed me to Rob Parenteau, of The Richebacher Letter.
Rob wrote back that he had been using the phrase for quite some time. He directed me to a BNN TV interview where he used the phrase (about 3 minutes in) on the afternoon of June 10, 2010 to refer to the region previously known as the Eurozone as Austeria.
Rob also wrote: “I next used it and the phrase “Austerian Economics” in the third and second to last paragraphs of the June 11, 2010 Richebacher Weekly letter published by Agora Financial for subscribers. And yes, it was a yank on the Austrian School bias toward deflation uber alles.”
I don’t know Rob, or get the Richebacher Letter — but Yves does, and she confirms he has been using the phrase since April.
There you have it — etymological mystery solved.
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Source:
SqueezePlay : June 10, 2010 : G20 Votes for Great Depression
BNN.CA June 10, 2010
http://watch.bnn.ca/thursday/ShowAllClips/#clip312053
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June 28th, 2010 at 10:15 am
WTF? See also “austerity.”
austerity |ôˈsteritē|
noun ( pl. -ties)
sternness or severity of manner or attitude : he was noted for his austerity and his authoritarianism.
• extreme plainness and simplicity of style or appearance : the room was decorated with a restraint bordering on austerity.
• ( austerities) conditions characterized by severity, sternness, or asceticism : his austerities had undermined his health | the simple life of prayer and personal austerity.
• difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce a budget deficit, esp. by reducing public expenditure : a period of austerity | [as adj. ] austerity measures.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from French austérité, from Latin austeritas, from austerus ‘severe’ (see austere ).
June 28th, 2010 at 10:19 am
The word has caught on more than the school of thought has.
It will never work long term because as long as there have been politicians, they have been buying votes.
They always will.
June 28th, 2010 at 10:24 am
A sensible strategy would be to save during good times and spend during bad. Alas nobody cares about deficits during the good times — we only start thinking about them during times of crisis. So Austerians it is.
June 28th, 2010 at 10:28 am
“Austerity” for everyone else now that the banking and wealthy cabal have been bailed out. We continue to be conned by our masters, who laugh all the way to the bank about our rank stupidity.
June 28th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Austerians, Austrians, Australians, Austro-Hungarian-
I don’t know about anyone else- but my head is spinning-
the Austerian’s are the one’s that are good at the giant slalom- am I wrong?
June 28th, 2010 at 11:06 am
I thought AUsterian was another word for gold bug.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Too much time on your hands Barry? ;)
June 28th, 2010 at 11:09 am
I can’t believe you killed the smileys. This site has jumped the shark….again!
June 28th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Real men don’t use emoticons, Common.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Ahab,
Don’t forget the Astairians. Boy can they dance!
June 28th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Funniest spam title I think I’ve ever read. I just got it in the mail:
Become a Psychologist – its Easy
June 28th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I had an uncle, local alderman, tried to put a pay hike freeze on the teachers in his district. Two weeks later he gets a knock on his door, and next thing know he’s on a train to Aust-schiwtz. Run by some vicious Austerians.
He spent 18 months there and eventually escaped by posing as a census-taker.
Thanks for coming, folks – i’ll be here all week.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:50 am
And AUsterity another word for the gold standard.
June 28th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I can’t wait for the Battle of Austeriterlitz, when we can finally defeat the Prusso-Austerian conservative alliance and inaugurate a new century of freedom and prosperity!
June 28th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
[...] etymology of the term “Austerians,” which we’d previously sourced to Mark [...]
June 29th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
[...] and foremost, I owe Rob Parenteau a big apology. Parenteau is the originator and first user of the clever term “Austerian”, which I erroneously attributed to Mark Thoma. Thoma [...]
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:11 am
[...] want to slash government spending and cut deficits during a time of economic weakness or recession (Rithholz). When these guys throw a party, the only thing on the menu is stale chips and warm [...]
July 6th, 2010 at 9:23 am
[...] light of the Austerian movement, some folks are now arguing that the bailouts were a form of Keynesianism run amuck. Even my pal [...]
July 7th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
[...] The Big Picture Engaging in some etymological detective work, Barry Ritholtz traced the origin of the word Austerians to Rob Parenteau. Ritholtz explained: “A play on the fiscal reserve of the ‘Austrian’ school of economic thought (Friedrich Hayek or Ludwig von Mises) the phrase Austerians referred to the desire to slash government spending and cut deficits during a time of economic weakness or recession.” [...]
July 13th, 2010 at 7:21 am
[...] Word Origins: “Austerians” (June 28th, [...]