@Alon @kentwillard I love the german work-sharing approach, on welfarist grounds. I hope it yields political stability dividends too, but I don't know. I think the correlations you point to are not fluctuations in employment, but regions with chronic unemployment which yes, does breed the fash. The tragedy, tho, is that near-term, austerity is safer than stimulus from an electoral perspective. Long-term, yes, absolutely, that risks the fash, if austerity becomes bakes-in as chronic depression.