Austerity is it a new thing?

Sabrina reminded me of something and its sparked something intresting to me with modern economics.

I was christened into the Anglican faith, although my parents had moved from Devon to London before I
was born so summers when i was a kid were spent in the lovely devon countryside. Every sunday we were
required to go to church but even as a youngster I felt there was something wrong (and this may be the
connection with my later athiesm) it was depressing something almost puritanical about it.

As ive got older and had part of our group of friends who were Catholics after the pub on christmas eve
we would invariably end up at midnight mass which seem to be much more joyful.  Later visiting cathedrals
and churches as i love the architecture it struck much how much more intresting Catholic churches in
general were (the Vatican museum is an absolutely stunning group of buildings) Sabrina linked me
to some of her pentecostal sermons and reminds me of the Baptists as well of the feeling of the sermons
much more joyous.

Going back in time it appears that the anglican faith was related to the first Lutherian churches of
Northern central europe and puritanical in way that hard work and a simple life is the only  way to God.

Lets step forward into the Industrial revolution and into free market economics. The driver of course
in the Industrial revolution were the British especially what became known to the Germans as "manchesterism"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_capitalism

This form of capitalism was pre eminent in the Industrial revolution and was directly descended from
the protestant form of religion and hard work that the puritans had admired. Classical economics and
later Neoclassical economics are to come from this and spread right across the Northern European
countries that were and are mostly lutherian type protestants but for a long time they were sidelined
as a type of Keynesian Economics which was a synthesis of Keynes and Neoclassical economics, what us
Post Keynsesian types refer to (Coined by Joan Robinson, a Professor of Economics at Cambridge) as
bastard Keynesians.  Although was a mix it wasnt actually too bad at the time but had some major
flaws in trying to synthesise the 2 schools and when the oil crisis of the 1970s come along it failed
to predict or have any effect on it causing stagflation.
Waiting in the wings were the hardcore right wing of neoclassical economics, Milton Freidman, Friedrich
Hayek etc who were heavily influenced by Manchester capitalism and the free market economics of that
period. Although in the USA they were from northern european stock and therefore influenced in some
way by the puritanism of the forefathers?

Move forward into the early 1980s and along come 2 uber free market types in Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagen amongst the backdrop of the ongoing cold war. It can be no surprise to learn that Thatcher
in particular was influenced by Hayek.  Straight away workers rights were eroded, the free market was
let loose to the final damage we are now seeing.   This become known to a lot as Anglo Saxon economics
but again driven by the Northern Europeans& the USA but including Germany & The Netherlands. To us
on the left its Neoliberalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

Forward again to the Eurozone, it can be no surprise that the so called sinner states are Catholic
or in the case of Greece Orthidox that dont have the puritan anglo saxon work and austere thinking.
Being in the Euro these periphery states have no choice but to have this "austerity" enforced on them,
The UK conservative government doing the same thing, calls from the US right to do the same thing but
which makes no economic sense.   France dont be fooled is Catholic of course and will be next in line
to be shot at by the bond vigilantes and seems to be just be going along with the protestant countries
for now.

It seems to me that all this talk of austerity being the way out is some hold over from the differences
between the original protestent break from the Catholic church. Is the old split between northern and
southern Europe alive and kicking?

Andy