Austerity is now officially a joke.
Last night's "Colbert Report" highlighted the work of Thomas Herndon, the University of Massachusetts graduate student whose work pointed out serious problems with the famous Reinhart and Rogoff study of "Growth in a Time of Debt."
Note that this is not really a partisan political issue.
The Obama administration is arguably at least as pro-austerity as the Republican opposition. Obama's new Treasury secretary, for example, has been described as one of the "principal architects of austerity in the Obama administration." The administration's proposed budget for 2014 calls for $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction.
Check out the segments from last night:
