Deficit spending
When a government spends more than it collects in revenue over a period, borrowing to cover the shortfall.
Deficits can reflect deliberate stimulus, wars, recessions that shrink tax bases, or structural mismatches between promised benefits and revenues. They are neither automatically wise nor wicked—context and financing conditions matter.
Fiscal policy toolkit
The content plan lists deficit spending among P2 fiscal ideas alongside fiscal policy itself; Keynesian and political narratives in “The Economist’s Hour” often hinge on when borrowing is responsible versus reckless.