Can the Debt Growth be Stopped? explores new fiscal rules introduced in OECD countries to determine if new fiscal rules should be enacted in the United States. The centerpiece of the study is analysis of fiscal rules using a dynamic simulation model.

Front -- Contents -- Introduction -- Austere ideas for austere societies from Aristotle to Aquinas -- Austerity v. reason from Mandeville to Voltaire -- Austerity for capitalism from Smith to Weber -- Austerity for stability from the Great War to the next -- Austerity can wait Keynes --...

Banking regulation invites banks to gamble when buying government bonds that regulators consider to be risk-free. The adverse effects on financial stability are known. In turn, this study shows that governments have an incentive to use banking regulation in order to enhance their fiscal...

Economists commit a category mistake when they treat democratic governments as indebted. Monarchs can be indebted, as can individuals. In contrast, democracies can't truly be indebted. They are financial intermediaries that form a bridge between what are often willing borrowers and forced...

This volume examines the major trends in public finance in developed capitalist countries since the oil crisis of 1973. That year's oil shock quickly became an economic crisis, putting an end to a period of very high growth rates and an era of easy finance. Tax protests and growing welfare costs...