大象传媒

Will austerity measures in Europe improve the health of economies, or make things worse? Public sector workers are protesting about cuts in wages, jobs, and pensions. They see themselves as unwilling sacrifices on the altar of balancing the national books.

But finance ministers, including George Osborne in Britain, are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea; they must reassure the international bond markets that their nations are creditworthy, but if they squeeze spending too hard, they risk putting the economy into reverse and provoking discontent.

On the 大象传媒 World Service, 大象传媒 World News and online at 大象传媒.com, we'll be looking at the austerity measures taken by leading economies and the hard times they bring. Are these measures the right answer?

To debate this, Lesley Curwen turned to Richard Wellings from the free market British think-tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs, and to Will Hutton, who leads the Work Foundation and was recently appointed by the UK government as head of a Pay Commission. They disagree fiercely over whether there is clear evidence that austerity packages achieve their aims.

Plus, Nkosana Moyo, the chief operating officer of the African Development Bank warns that Africa could lose out, if European consumers spend less on African goods because of austerity measures.

And the 大象传媒's Chris Hogg wonders why people are willing to queue for eight hours to get into the Shanghai Expo.