Résumé (EN)

The bogeyman view on governmental debt assumes its analogy with debt owned by an individual to another individual. The government economy comes to be understood as a family economy where responsible parents assure the payment of all incurred debts through their present and future salaries, refraining from passing-over incurred debt burden to their children. Public debt is then expected to be repaid by current and future tax revenues as a matter of fiscal responsibility. This bad analogy neglects the role that the government function plays in the overall economy through space and time. In this context, public debt management relates to the use of borrowing to fulfill general interest missions with an overall redistributive purpose, including assurance for welfare obligations and guarantees, as well as to the monetary base management.