The Athens result brings the austerity debate to a close – but not in a good way

‘Greeks choose austerity over chaos,’ said a typical headline on Monday morning. But in truth the argument for austerity is pretty much lost, and we might as well move on to the argument about in­equality — and related arguments about volatility, more of which below.

While anti-austerity socialists secured a majority in the French parliament, the pro-austerity New Democracy party limped home in the re-run Greek general election — but with less than 30 per cent of the poll.