Affairs

Every era invents its preferred fiscal illusion. One decade believes debt is harmless because rates are low. Another believes growth will outrun every promise. Another trusts windfalls, one-off taxes, privatization …

Trust in public finance does not break only when money is stolen. It breaks when the public starts feeling that official numbers are a stage set, polished from the front …

Debt-funded growth has a seductive plot. Borrow now, build now, expand now, prosper later. It flatters ambition because it turns time into leverage. Roads, ports, housing, technology parks, industrial corridors, …

Resource wealth has a way of making governments feel taller than they are. A strong commodity cycle arrives, revenues swell, and suddenly ministers speak with the confidence of people who …

There is a moment in many governments when the budget starts to resemble a crowded elevator. Everyone is still trying to get in. Nobody wants to get out. Health demands …

A crisis can make almost any spending decision look noble. That is one reason emergencies are so politically intoxicating. The normal filters weaken. Procurement rules loosen. Objections sound heartless. Speed …

Every budget season has its own brand of optimism. Revenue lines rise in neat columns. Growth assumptions look plausible enough to survive a press conference. Lawmakers smile beside balanced charts …

For years, sovereign debt was treated in many capitals like wallpaper. Always there, rarely examined, part of the background hum of modern government. Ministries issued bonds, central banks absorbed shocks, …

Deficits rarely begin as villains in public life. They arrive dressed as kindness, urgency, patriotism, relief, or confidence. A tax cut for growth. A subsidy for calm. A spending package …

A grand public project always begins with a mood before it becomes a spreadsheet. Someone stands at a lectern, points toward a cleaner future, and makes concrete sound like poetry. …