Lessons from olde worlde finaunce

James Montier, the former SocGen analyst now allocating assets at hedge fund GMO, is prone to occasional outbursts of macroeconomic theorizing.He's entered the austerity debate with his latest paper, which FT Alphaville compared to Bernard Mandeville's 1705 epic Fable of the Bees. Quick translation: if everyone saves at once, we all get poorer.