Profligacy in Southern Europe is commonly blamed for the eurozone mess. Greece offers an easy proof of excessive state spending. But you are right to challenge this diagnosis (”Profligacy is Not the Problem,” September 17, 2011). “If profligacy is the problem,” you argue, “austerity is the solution, with public thrift serving to rebuild investor confidence.” Correct, assuming that everything else is hunky-dory. But austerity has only deepened the ongoing recession. “The profligacy diagnosis is incomplete,” you argue, “and thus misleading.” Agreed, but for a reason you do not mention. Profligacy was indeed rampant across Southern Europe, but austerity is the wrong way about it in a deep recession. That is, state spending should be trimmed in places, where it is likely to be squandered, but it should grow overall to get the economy going. Put differently, the austerity solution is incomplete. State spending in Greece, as well as several other countries, should have been channeled rather than driven ever lower. The title of your article thus needs correcting: “Austerity is Not the Solution.”