And austerity has been shown to be a remarkable failure for any form of economic recovery not just the first, but pretty much every time any country has tried it
How would you define austerity for the Greece? To have public spending at 58% of GDP?
If your economy collapses, partially because of global recession and partially due to corruption enabled by cheap foreign money looking for a quick buck, your GDP ratios all look worse all of a sudden.
I'd define it as me paying 90% taxes last year, while my country is still getting worse.
Austerity isn't about rising taxes, as much, as about lowering government costs.