America's Disappearing Fiscal Guardrails
According to The Economist, America is in the grip of what they call a 'tax-cutting mania' — a political moment where reducing taxes has become the default position across the political spectrum, with little regard for the fiscal consequences. This matters because the country is operating without the budgetary constraints that once shaped policy debates, potentially reshaping the relationship between government capacity and citizen expectations for generations.
Bottom Line
The Economist's diagnosis of 'tax-cutting mania' points to something deeper than partisan disagreement over rates — it suggests the institutional mechanisms that once forced policymakers to confront fiscal trade-offs have broken down. America is making long-term commitments about government capacity without the political infrastructure to debate those commitments seriously. That's a structural vulnerability regardless of which policies you support.