Thebasicconclusionis as follows: it is fiscalrevenue and expenditure of central government but notGDP that are the mainfactors that affect the issuingscaleofnational debt.
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 governmentdebt but must also decide to put off buying Nintendo Wiis because of expectations of tax rises.