John Nichols of The Nation opened my eyes to the lie of austerity at a Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) leadership meeting in Winslow, Arizona in 2012. He explained that there is plenty of money. The problem is that the 1% has consolidated the nation’s wealth in its hands and offered “belt-tightening” to the rest of us. This country needs to solve the crisis of economic inequality before it can truly thrive again as a nation. In this video, Nichols explains the lie of austerity with his famous cookie jar story (IBEW Hall, March 2013).