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1 results

Public Debt as a Form of Public Finance

Public Debt as a Form of Public Finance
  • Overcoming a Category Mistake and its Vices
  • Richard E. Wagner
  • Published online:
    26 March 2019
    Print publication:
    30 May 2019
  • 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 lenders. The language of public debt is an ideological language that promotes politically expressed desires and is not a scientific language that clarifies the practice of public finance. Economists have gone astray by assuming that a government is just another person whose impulses toward prudent action will restrict recourse to public debt and induce rational political action.