Austerian (austerity + Austrian school of economics)

The word “austerian” (sometimes capitalized as “Austerian”), meaning someone who advocates “austerity” measures, became popular in June 2010. “Austerian” possibly borrows also from the word “Austrian” and the Austrian School of economic thought.
 
Rob Parenteau used the term “austerian” on June 10, 2010 and Mark Thoma used the term on June 17, 2010. Barry Ritholtz wrote “Word Origins: ‘Austerians’” on his blog, The Big Picture, on June 28, 2010.
 
There is an earlier, isolated use of “austerian” in the Washington (DC) Times of March 20, 1996.
 
 
Wikipedia: Austrian School
The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that emphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism. Its name derives from the identity of its founders and early supporters, who were citizens of the old Austrian Habsburg Empire, including Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek. Currently, adherents of the Austrian School can come from any part of the world, but they are often referred to simply as Austrian economists and their work as Austrian economics.
     
20 March 1996, Washington (DC) Times, “Reminder from Forbes ... crossroads for Dole; Debt-limit opportunity”:
Remember, the political idea being expressed a year ago was that because the GOP interpreted its 1994 mandate as a call to budget-balancing austerity, the electorate would never give the White House to the GOP if its nominee was also a root-canal austerian.
 
Economist’s View
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Weekly Claims for Unemployment Insurance Increase
(...)
The austerians are winning, but at what cost? How does a stubbornly high unemployment rate increase business and market confidence?
Posted by Mark Thoma on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 11:17 AM
     
NYTimes.com—Economix
June 18, 2010, 12:01 pm
Name That Stimulus Proponent
By MOTOKO RICH
The raging debate over what to do about the deficit is now getting its own lingo.
 
Mark Thoma, who blogs at Economist’s View, has coined the catchy term “Austerians” for those deficit hawks who are exhorting governments to reduce their debt levels.
 
The Faster Times
June 24, 2010
The Econ Gangs of New York
By Joshua M. Brown
(...)
The Austerians – These are newly-minted deficit hawks, many of whom voted for tax cuts and massive spending bills under the Bush administration without so much as a peep.  Dubbed ‘Austerians’ by blogger Mark Thoma (Economist’s View), this gang has found a sudden (upcoming election-related) pang of concern over deficits and our ability to finance them.  Critics say the Austerians’ premature tightness will send the economy off a cliff, a la the 1930′s.  Their rival gang is the New Jack Keynesians.
   
Naked Capitalism
Monday, June 28, 2010
Parenteau: Marching to Austeria* and Other Neolib Fibs
By Rob Parenteau, CFA, sole proprietor of MacroStrategy Edge, editor of The Richebacher Letter, and a research associate of The Levy Economics Institute
(...)
*Earlier in the month we coined the terms Austeria and Austerian Economics. We introduced these concepts in our June 10th BNN TV interview, and in our June 11 Richebacher Letter Weekly Alert to describe the policy stance we saw the G-20 embracing for Austeria, formerly know as the eurozone. (And yes, bloggers elsewhere who have been erroneously attributing these terms to Mark Thoma’s subsequent June 17th use of it at Economist’s View – please consider doing a little fact checking now and again).
 
The Big Picture
Word Origins: “Austerians”
By Barry Ritholtz - June 28th, 2010, 10:00AM
Sometime over the past two weeks, the word “Austerians” burst onto the blogosphere.
 
A play on the fiscal reserve of the “Austrian” school of economic thought (Friedrich Hayek or Ludwig von Mises) the phrase Austerians referred to the desire to slash government spending and cut deficits during a time of economic weakness or recession.
 
Economix credited the term to Mark Thoma (who blogs at Economist’s View). His first mention appears to have been on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 04:23 AM in “Paradox of Thrift” versus “Confidence in the Markets”.
(...)
Mark noted that someone in his comment stream claimed to have heard this used earlier at Naked Capitalism. So I pinged Yves Smith, and she directed me to Rob Parenteau, of The Richebacher Letter.
(...)
I don’t know Rob, or get the Richebacher Letter — but Yves does, and she confirms he has been using the phrase since April.

There you have it — etymological mystery solved.
 
The Big Picture
Austerians vs Keynesians: NYT Edition
By Barry Ritholtz - June 30th, 2010, 10:44AM
The New York Time’s David Leonhardt has the perfect article for the layperson who wants to understand the current debate between the deficit hawks and the stimulus advocates:...
 
NYTimes.com—The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
September 1, 2010, 8:36 am
Austerians = Bubble Deniers?
In re this post: Economics of Contempt directs me to his list, a couple of years back, of prominent bubble deniers. There turns out to be a quite strong correlation between denying the existence of a housing bubble a few years back — and jeering at those who said there was — and insisting, now, that fiscal stimulus doesn’t, can’t work.