Preface -- About the Authors -- Part I. General Report -- Chapter 1. Fiscal Rules: Legal Limits on Government Deficit and Debt; Fred L. Morrison -- Part II. Special Regional Report -- Chapter 2. The Crisis of the Economic and Monetary Union and its Solution (or Dissolution?); Michal Tomášek -- Part III. National Reports -- Chapter 3. La dette publique dans le système constituionnel et federal belge; Dimitri Vernault -- Chapter 4. The process of budgeting and issues of indebtedness in the Czech Republic; Hana Maroková -- Chapter 5. Objects and Procedures of Budgetary Planning and Limits to Borrowing ("Debt Brake") in the Federal Republic of Germany; Hermann Pȕnder -- Chapter 6. Limitations on Government Debt and Deficits in Greece; Athanasios D. Tsevas -- Chapter 7. From Ideological Neutrality to Neoclassical Inspiration: The Evolution of the Italian Constitutional Law of Public Debt and Deficit; Edmondo Mostacci -- Chapter 8. Limitations on government debt and deficits-the Netherlands; M. Diamant, M. L. van Emmerik, and G.J.A. Geertjes -- Chapter 9. Limitations on Government Debt and Deficits in Romania Simina; Elena Tǎnǎsescu and Simona Gherghina -- Chapter 10. The Swiss "Success Story" of Sustainable Public Finance: Debt Restrictions and Budgeting Processes in the Swiss Confederation; Agata Zielniewicz -- Chapter 11. Limitations on Government Debt and Deficit in the United Kingdom; Tony Prosser -- Chapter 12. Limitations on Government Debt and Deficit in the United States; Ved P. Nanda -- Appendix - The Questionnaire for National Reporters.

This book examines legal limitations on government deficit and debt and its impact on the ability of nations to provide services to their residents. It studies constitutional and statutory limitations, as well as those imposed by international treaties and other instruments, including those of both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The book contains a general report examining the fiscal rules that govern the budgets and expenditures of nation states. The general report is followed by a special report which covers the limits imposed by the European Union and by the smaller group of countries constituting the Eurozone. Ten national reports, describing the limits in their respective countries, form the basis of the general report. These countries include eight members of the European Union (five of which use the Euro and three of which do not), one other European state and one non-European state. The reports include two countries in which constitutional "debt brakes" limit national deficit and debt.