UK fiscal rules: The incredible Mr. Brown

If Gordon Brown was the chief executive of a public company he would be out on his ear – and rightly so. For once, the UK prime minister’s opponents cannot be accused of hyperbole when they say that Treasury plans to rewrite the UK’s fiscal rules are “the last nail in the coffin of his credibility”. Those rules – that government debt should not exceed 40% of national income and that the government should borrow only to invest over the course of the cycle – were introduced to counter fears that L...