But for Ricardian equivalence to work, individual consumers, who generally prefer watching TV talent contests to genning up on financial news, must not only be aware of the scale of government debt but must also decide to put off buying Nintendo Wiis because of expectations of tax rises.
He says national governments' deep spending cuts, dictated by the scale of the debt crisis, make the case for reining in EU spending all the more compelling.
What is important is that, despite the protestations of the pension funds, the scale of the UK national debt - and many others - is still large and growing, and exerts a drag on growth in most economic models.
In addition, new accounting rules would make it easier to get an overview of the scale of the banks' bad debt problem, according to the draft.
Its 42 days in bankruptcy cleansed the company of lots of bad things, like debt and an out-of-whack pay scale.
He said: "I don't want you or me or anyone else to be in any doubt about the scale of the task ahead to deal with a debt crisis that threatens to blight a generation".
But Mr Legrain has a gift for combining big numbers that offer a sense of the scale of the global build-up in things like household debt while zeroing in on what all this means for people like Thorvaldur Thorvaldsson, a proudly left-wing Icelandic carpenter and unlikely sometime property speculator.
ECONOMIST: The reasons for the crisis and how to stop it happening again
Despite high expectations, large-scale debt write-offs or generously-priced purchases of the state-owned Irish banks are unlikely to occur.
FORBES: After Mrs. Merkel's Irish Jig, Are Ireland's Problems Solved?
Elsewhere, such as in Europe's periphery, the scale of budget tightening will cause such economic damage that the countries' debt outlook will darken rather than brighten.
Debt reduction is very difficult without economic growth, and the scale of Europe's austerity makes it hard to see where that growth will come from.
Poland and Hungary are now seeking access to a number of U.S. trade and financial privileges, including: permanent or multi-year most-favored-nation status, tariff benefits under the generalized system of preferences, eligibility for Overseas Private Investment Corporation programs and large-scale debt relief.
"The DOE loan program provides an important financing 'bridge' at a time when the U.S. private debt markets have little to no experience financing first of their kind utility-scale solar projects, " First Solar Chief Executive Rob Gillette said in an email.
The sheer scale of Spain's borrowing requirement will be a major test of the reawakened investor appetite for Spanish debt.
When Greek and Italian debt yields started to spike we witnessed the rare event of a human-time-scale criticality.
FORBES: Reinhart and Rogoff; and The Dangers of Tipping Points, Real and Otherwise
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