What fiscal rules should Britain have?

Not many politicians last more than a few years in charge. Short tenures give rise to temptation: to borrow money now and leave the next lot to foot the bill. Economists call this “deficit bias”, the fiscal equivalent of St Augustine’s prayer: “Lord, make me chaste. But not yet.”To tackle this problem Britain has fiscal rules, self-imposed restrictions on government borrowing. The problem is that politicians keep changing them, or make them too easy to game. On March 19th , the shadow chancellor of the exchequer, announced plans for Labour’s fiscal rules if they win the next election. They would represent an improvement, not a fix.