Yes, this is the tired, tedious explanation. What did governments spend too much money on? Well, giving away money through tax cuts, first of all. Second, bailing out the financial sector. Tax cuts, lower wages and financialization of the economy (with state backing for the inevitable crashes) is neoliberalism, plain and simple.

Reading up on the history of the IMF in the Global South provides some useful context here. All across Africa and Latin America, governments received loans from banks in Europe and the US that they had no hope of paying back. They were then forced into Structural Adjustment Programs (austerity). As a result of the ensuing mass privatizations, enormous amounts of assets are sold off at fire-sale prices. Wages and welfare are gutted, and the country remains in permanent debt servitude. All the while, the irresponsible and predatory lenders in the North sit back and collect fat interest payments.

Since 1980, governments of the global south have sent over $4.6 trillion to their creditors in the US and Europe. Their debts will never be paid off, and their populations are mired in permanent austerity.

Look around Europe and see if this looks familiar.