New Delhi, March 5 -- What do Rachel Reeves, Javier Milei and Elon Musk have in common? All are preaching the gospel of austerity as a necessary cure for what ails their respective economies.

Hence, Reeves, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, has tightened rules for government spending and investment, despite the fact that fiscal constriction has been a major cause of the country's problems over the past 15 years. Similarly, Milei has framed austerity as the price Argentina must pay for 20 years of overextension. He argues that defeating inflation is the only path to prosperity, even if doing so deepens an already deep well of poverty.

And for Musk, the US needs austerity to spare it from bankruptcy. This argument is just a ruse: stat...