BUT WHAT DO RESULTS MATTER TO IDEOLOGUES?:

Spain and Ireland now have the euro zone's most dynamic economies: The International Monetary Fund expects Spain to expand by 3.1 percent this year and Ireland, by 4 percent -- realistic expectations, in light of their progress in the first six months. Given this performance, one has to wonder how long any economists can continue to condemn austerity as deadly poison based on the example of Greece. [...]

Of the three countries, it was Ireland, not Greece, that saw its public spending diminish the most relative to the size of its economy. One could argue that austerity was what caused Greece's GDP to contract so painfully, but that argument would be purely ideological, because there's no way to accurately compare the effects of the countries' individual measures. Their economies are too different. It's just as easy to say -- and as hard to prove -- that governments' management aptitude or cultural factors were decisive.

As for statistics, they show that of the three countries, the one that lowered its public spending-to-GDP ratio the most got the best results: Ireland's economic output is back at its pre-crisis level, it's the fastest-growing economy in Europe, and its unemployment level is down to 9.7 percent from the 2012 peak of 15 percent. 

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