Treasury rules dictate that borrowing by publicly owned bodies has to be counted as public borrowing.
Too much public borrowing may raise long-term interest rates, offsetting the stimulus in a milder way.
Nothing less than a wholesale bail-out of the banking system, using taxpayers' money and expanded public borrowing.
It has since gained adherents, even before the mortifying scale of public borrowing was set out in the recent budget.
Despite ballooning public borrowing, the government's balance sheet is still just about strong enough to take on such a task.
After worrying for years about excessive public borrowing, some economists are now, paradoxically, fretting about a shortage of debt instead.
The German finance ministry feared the commission was trying to establish a precedent for centralized European public borrowing, through EU bonds.
"The growth and public borrowing forecasts contained in the pre-Budget report look very optimistic, " said Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight.
The Treasury is understandably suspicious of cosmetic wheezes that add to public borrowing without any transfer of risk to the private sector.
Capital spending financed by asset sales will not add to public borrowing, nor, under the conventions, to the official control total for public expenditure.
Both stemmed from out of control public spending and public borrowing, fueled in part by financial shenanigans that included selling future revenue streams that masked debt.
FORBES: Why The Lessons Of New York City's Debt Crisis Won't Help Greece
At present, as Bimal Jalan, the central-bank governor, recently pointed out, large public borrowing and the high returns that are offered savers keep interest rates high.
The rapidly growing public borrowing will fuel the political debate about what level of cuts needs to be made to public spending to bring the budget into balance.
Treasury officials are still, however, sceptical of Mr Prescott's leasing plan on the grounds that it involves no real transfer of risk to the private sector and breaks public borrowing rules.
We will also include two new issues on the financial agenda: financing investment as a basis for economic growth and job creation, and modernising national public borrowing and sovereign debt management systems.
Above all, he forgets a golden rule of public finance that he would do well to put alongside his rule on public borrowing: every tax preference is an increase in taxes on everything else.
The idea that inequality might create pressure for more redistribution through public borrowing also occurred to Mr Rajan, who acknowledges that stronger safety nets are a more common response to inequality than credit subsidies.
But when Mr Osborne drew up his plans to cut public borrowing, he did think he could count on the private sector - especially private sector demand from the rest of the world - to fill most of the gap.
The trouble is, if he's wrong - if the spare capacity isn't there - then this policy risks making the situation worse, by pushing up inflation over the medium term, and weakening confidence in the government's commitment to cut public borrowing and re-balance the economy.
The government's commitment to rein in public borrowing has helped us avoid all the financial market tumult of Greece, Italy and the rest - but that has perhaps allowed our real economy to falter that much earlier, while our government's cost of borrowing has fallen to a record low.
But since September 2008 there have been two definitions of public sector net borrowing and public sector net debt, depending on whether the "temporary effects of financial sector interventions" are included.
Substantial public-sector borrowing to finance public-sector spending and investing - even public-sector investment in roads, or schools, or universities, or airports, all of which would arguably increase the productive potential of the economy - is viewed as dangerous and poisonous: the conventional government view is that way lies the road to bankruptcy of the state.
Public sector borrowing remains stubbornly high, and is forecast by the government's Office for Budget Responsibility to be 120 billion pounds for 2013.
That was ruled by the Treasury as falling outside the public sector borrowing requirement because it claimed the risk of default was so small.
When the boom period of credit expansion is coupled with growth in public sector borrowing, however, the subsequent negative impact on the economy will be worse.
FORBES: Links 05 Sept: Keynesians Need To Take Account Of The Long Run
From all that we can tell, the great correction has not been turned around it has merely been slowed down, delayed, and magnified by public sector borrowing, and money-printing, on a huge scale.
FORBES: Springtime For Bailouts But Economic Zombies Still Roam
If the councils borrowed the money to pay these bills, the consequent rise in public-sector borrowing would limit the government's ability to borrow money for other public services.
ECONOMIST: Some councils are getting rid of their entire housing stock
应用推荐