The term “Age of Austerity” was popularized by British Conservative leader David Cameron in his keynote speech to the Conservative party forum in Cheltenham on April 26, 2009, when he committed to put an end to years of excessive government spending.

In the wake of the United States debt ceiling crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis, M. Nicolas J. Firzli and Vincent Bazi wrote that the year 2011 could mark the end of an era of government engagement in the economy started with the New Deal in 1933 that saw a massive deployment of public resources and the advancement of state ownership across (formerly private) industries and infrastructures throughout the Western world (“Folkhemmet

Folkhemmet

Folkhemmet is a political concept that played an important role in the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish welfare state. It is also sometimes used to refer to the long period between 1932-76 when the Social democrats were in power and the concept was put into practice...

” in Scandinavia, “Welfare State

Welfare State

The Welfare State is a commitment to health, education, employment and social security in the United Kingdom.-Background:The United Kingdom, as a welfare state, was prefigured in the William Beveridge Report in 1942, which identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness...

” in the UK...), and that the budgetary profligacy of the US and other G7 countries on the domestic front (generous social insurance programs, cheap water and electricity, subsidized housings...) won't be sustainable in the post-2011 "Age of Austerity".