Governments around the world initiated massive public spending in response to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009. The purpose of this spending was to boost consumption and investment demand in national economies to try and ward off the worst effects of econon1ic recession and high unemployment. In Australia, for example, the Rudd Government's (2007-2013) Nation Building Economic Stimulus Package injected AU$42 billion into the economy (Commonwealth of Australia 2009). Australia came through the external shock of the GFC largely unscathed, with only one-quarter of negative growth in December 2008 (ABS 2010). Other countries did not fare so well. The United States' post-GFC economic recovery remains slow and uneven, while the European Union (EU) has struggled with a sovereign debt crisis in Greece and deep financial problems in Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain that have threatened the stability of the Eurozone. Much of post-GFC Europe remains mired in rising inequality and entrenched youth unemployment (Onis 2017: 20).