Far better would be statutory limits on spending increases and debt as a share of GDP, sequesters that automatically cut spending if Congress exceeds those limits, supermajority rules for replacing those limits, and revisions of the budget baseline so that each year's budget begins at last year's spending levels, not with automatic increases.

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The Legislative Council even voted in February to reduce the statutory wage, reasoning that all sectors of society should share Hong Kong's economic pinch. (The maids, led by Philippine groups, argued that their wages were already low enough.) Jennifer Chow, who sits on one of two municipal councils, recommends deeper cuts in the maids' minimum wage.

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This banknote liability arises largely because the bulk of the euro currency circulating outside the eurozone is sourced from, and paid for in, Germany, meaning that the Bundesbank holds a much greater share of refinancing loan assets backing the euro banknote circulation than its statutory allocation.

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