As of late, the greatest new fad is 'Austerity', and I even use it when it comes to my dog - it only gets two treats a day, no more (the remaining ones can be earned by devouring burglars). However, when it comes to EU countries that have to cut spending, that's what they call 'fiscal austerity':

This basically means that the public expenditure is not climbing at an exponential rate, but at a linear pace at best. Especially to be monitored is France, recently conquered by a socialist that regards state expenditures as the best thing since sliced bread and would give Keyes a Légion d'Honneur instead of a bed in a psychiatric ward. Same thing goes for Spain - too bad nobody was able and willing to stop the politicians over there.

No, this is not 'Austerity', but just some lame talking. Cutting expenditures back to the level of 2002 would be 'Austerity'. It's time to go through the budget, line item for line item, like the current New Jersey governor Chris Christie did in his state, at least with the same fervor.

The same goes for Switzerland, too, just that unlike other countries, we run budget surpluses each year because, relatively seen, we're much better than any other EU country around us, except maybe Luxemburg.

(Hat tip to the Adam Smith Institute)