if you are rich. That is why the Republican money lenders are asking their puppets to push it.
1) First of all if you are really rich losing a few dollars on stocks is nothing if it gets you more dollars in the end.
2) If you are rich you have plenty of money in other countries and places where you are a big fish in a small pond.
3) If you are rich during an austerity period and someone wants to borrow some of your money you can ask for higher interest. You can point out to them there is higher risk they will not pay you back. Thus your rate of return on investment is higher than in better times. Insurance companies will be eager to insure the investment assuming it is a good investment just to get some business. Since you are rich they know you have a good track record of earning and keeping money.
4) Since you have money you can find eager sellers of goods in low income countries desperiate to sell and then you can ship those goods cheaply via a transport system eager for money paying traffic. You can then sell the cheaply made goods at a good price to middle and low income people in the United states who have paid more for those types of goods made locally but now much consider buying bargans more important than the advantages of buying locally made goods. When ten dollars saved on a winter jacket purchase can mean you will be able to feed your kids something besides macaroni and cheese or potatos with margerine for a week the cheaper jacket is the one bought.
4) If you have money then during times of austerity for others you can get better real estate deals. That 5 million micro mansion on Beachview street in Phoenix Arizona will now cost you only 4 million.
5) The cost of buying that congress persons vote may go down. The vote that will help you in a way that earns you millions more so is is a wise investment. If that person loses you can find some way to get that expense written off of your taxes or something along those lines.
6) If you own a company (or several companies) you can get good employees at lower wages than you would have to pay in a better economy. You can also give them fewer benefits thus saving you money.
7) You can purchase upscale products like cars, boats, planes at lower prices as sellers are eager to sell.
8) You have greater control over friends, family and employees as they are more beholden to your money since jobs are scarce.
9) If you want to do something like build a shopping center or expand your company's building the local city politicians will be more eager to give you tax incentives or relax zoning restrictions just to get your investment. That real estate you need to buy for that investment will also cost less too.
10) If stock prices are low they are a good investment as they will go up as the economy gets better.
11) Unions will have less influence since your employees will be afraid to join one or the union will be afraid to ask for too much since if you lay off workers their paying members base goes down. Workers are also less likely to vote to strike as they can barely make by as it is. You can blame the bad economy on the unions in ads and people who do not research the truth will be more likely to beleive you and be anti union.
12) If you are a money hoarder (One who wants to make more and more money after they have all they could ever need to be happy and secure.) then all of the ways listed and others work better in an economic downturn than in economic good times. Studies have shown that the averge American feels that earning about $161,000 a year would be all they need to be happy.
I would love to hear other ideas of how the rich can make by better in a time of austerity than in better economic times. I'm sure there are others.