Reining in debt and other liabilities has substantially reduced governments’ scope for sustaining demand in the face of severe negative shocks, thus reducing their ability to buy time for structural adjustment in the private sector. For now, investment in a shift to a sustainable growth and employment pattern has been crowded out.
债务和其它应付款项的制肘之下，政府面对严重的负面冲击时维持需求的余地也大大缩小，并因此降低了它们为私人部门进行结构性调整争取时间的能力。就目前而言，投资转向可持续发展和就业的模式已经被排挤出局。通过增税使消费转向投资是有可能的，但在政治上很成问题，因为责任由谁分担的问题往往最终会导致僵局与不作为。