Which part of the cycle?

When is the time for austerity?

If you want to answer this, first identify booms and busts, that is. get a complete sequence for the cycle.

Then we observe that during recession, rates are low and during expansion rates are higher.  Pretty friggen good signal, one might think. That is what the author concludes:

Keynes is still right, after all: “The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.”

Bubba Clinton and Obama both did their tax and sequesters after the recovery, how about that! And all they did was look at interest charges, current. 

We find that to be the general rule, it is even mentioned in the CBO report. Recent history tells us that we actually have a hard bound on interest charges, a point where congress no longer works.  So, to really study the austerity model, study the points at which Congress stops.