Put me, for one, down as welcoming a sensible technocrati...

Put me, for one, down as welcoming a sensible technocratic debts-and-deficits debate: Brendan Greeley: Give the Kids Permission to Fool Around: "Several weeks ago Alphaville was forwarded a panicked email from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.... The subject... 'Be wary of mischaracterisations of Olivier Blanchard's debt report'.... Here's Mr Blanchard, in his own words, talking to Alphachat... 'use it for the right things. If the economy is very weak and monetary policy cannot be used, use it. If there is public investment to be done, the infrastructure is in terrible shape, use it.... It's a tool, it's not a tool you should avoid to use at any price. It's a tool you should use when you need to'.... He wants a 'richer discussion of the costs of debt and of fiscal policy than is currently the case'.... Alphaville believes that the discussion alone is what the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget finds so alarming...

...Mr Blanchard calls this the "dominant view," prominent in Germany, Brussels and parts of Washington: debt is necessarily bad, and that the only conversation to be had about it is how quickly it can be reduced.... For a CFO, the idea that a company can have an optimal level of debt is uncontroversial.... But politicians don't talk that way about sovereign debt.... There's a lack of will to trust politicians with this conversation.... All Mr Blanchard is proposing is a kind of debt education class. Give the kids the best information you have. Make sure they understand the consequences. And then, he says, 'Relax. Don't relax too much, but relax'...

#noted