Similarly, European governments maintain their "austerity" programs.
Elsewhere, you get austerity programs, which offer another set of natural experiments.
Protests erupted across Greece and demonstrators surrounded the Spanish Parliament to protest further austerity programs.
Meanwhile, public-sector spending is also being sharply reduced by austerity programs.
And sure enough, austerity programs actually led to Depression-level economic downturns across much of Europe.
Besides Greece, two countries -- Spain and Portugal -- have taken steps to institute austerity programs.
But that hasn't happened in any of the countries currently pursuing harsh austerity programs.
Other countries are passing austerity programs that risk hurting women's work prospects.
Soon Greece, Ireland, and other debt-burdened European countries were launching ever more Draconian austerity programs.
Rather, the risk is that government austerity programs provoke double-dip recessions.
And meanwhile, austerity programs are leading to severe slumps in Greece and elsewhere.
