I don’t know how many stories I can do just showing statistics of the Eurozone to prove that austerity in a depressed economy is disastrous. While news that the Eurozone is now experiencing it’s worst unemployment in years isn’t a surprise, it’s important to document an unassailable fact pattern, one that stresses how backward Eurozone (and U.K.) fiscal policy has become.

In addition to the economic truth that tax cuts and growth do not have much of a relationship, what we’ve learned over the past few years is that austerity during a depression is a bonkers idea. And here’s some more evidence of that today. Britain’s latest numbers show a bigger drop of GDP than expected.

Another healthy jobs report, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The economy added 227,000 jobs in February, and December (now 223,000) and January (now 284,000) were both revised upward. The pace of job creation over the past three months is on par with the average during the Clinton years.

The unemployment rate, however, remained unchanged at 8.3%.

In many ways this is the best economic data since the beginning of the recession. The Labor Department reports that unit labor costs have risen above the level of inflation for the first time since the end of 2008. And much of that can be attributed to higher wages, according to the Wall Street Journal.

I don’t know how many Eurozone finance meetings have been seen as consequential, but we’ve got another one today, with the Greek bailout as the main topic. Greek leaders hope that the finance ministers will approve the bailout, after they gave final assent to austerity measures. CNBC quotes officials saying the chances are “little higher than 50-50.” What we learned going into the meeting is more evidence that the ordered cure for Greece’s ills, austerity, is causing the disease:

New statistics out of Greece show that austerity shrunk the economy more than expected last year. GDP in Greece fell 6.8% in 2011, and a slightly faster 7% in the fourth quarter. The country is in a fifth straight year of recession, approaching a full-on depression.
European leaders are still trying to impose more austerity, but some Eurozone finance ministers may be trying to force a default and exit from the euro.

The conservative theories about starving public spending as a way to jump-start private investment have been proven completely wrong by this test case. Austerity during a fragile recovery is destroying Britain. As Brad DeLong writes, if there’s any country where this myth of expansionary austerity should have worked, it was Britain. But it’s not working at all.

Maybe we need a “Ya Think?” of the day, going to the article that shows the best grasp of the obvious. If so, the article with the headline In Greece, fears that austerity is killing the economy would win.

Austerity simply doesn’t work in the midst of a recession. It certainly doesn’t help bring back the economy, and it can make deficits larger, because revenues collapse when austerity creates a deeper recession or depression. Yet we still see policy makers and editorials urging the pain of austerity on others.

Euro nations are facing a tough economic year in 2012, driven by Euro leaders’ insistence on austerity programs that are depressing their economies but not solving their debt problems. A broad recession seems likely.