Worse trouble has been staved off by seven years of budget restraint, large foreign-exchange reserves and a hefty overseas investment portfolio.

ECONOMIST: Libya and the bombed airliners

And, since they did not have vast deficits to swallow up the early windfalls of the boom (all but Vermont have balanced-budget requirements), the governors have been pulling off an impressive feat for years: cutting taxes while increasing both spending and surpluses.

ECONOMIST: A praline kind of party

AMERICA'S infamous debt clock, near New York's Times Square, was switched off in 2000 after the national burden started to fall thanks to several years of Clinton-era budget restraint.

ECONOMIST: Fiscal Armageddon, coming to a cinema near you