Prologue : The perils of sleepwalking -- Contextualizing debt : history, morality, and the triple structural dimension -- The nature of sovereign creditworthiness : hierarchy, sovereignty, and responsibility -- Moralizing credit : bad debt, good debt, and the troubled conscience -- pt. I. Debt...

The authors build on the findings from an earlier analysis, adding to the evidence base for the notion that credit rating agencies contribute to fiscal sustainability. To do so, the authors focus on election periods when political pressures for fiscal expansions are heightened. The literature on...