How Austerity Pushed American Colonists to Revolt
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May 3 (Bloomberg) -- As the euro area tries to wrestlemember states into fiscal submission through bailouts, austerityand capital controls, it would be well advised to consider ahistorical precedent: the American Revolution.
In the early 18th century, North America held a role in theBritish Empire that was similar to the one occupied by Cyprus orSlovenia in the euro area today. Americans were slavers,smugglers, rumrunners and fanatics -- as “opulent, commercial,thriving” as they were irresponsible and fiscally profligate.But as the empire struggled to stay solvent after the SevenYears War, the government of Prime Minister George Grenvilleattempted to bring the colonists to heel in the name of fiscalausterity.