There are times when governments can balance the books or when there is a surplus, which is great, but there are also times when a deficit is needed and one must borrow to invest as an economy needs it. We are going from an extreme, with reckless spending and borrowing in the likes of Greece, to another extreme where we prevent any kind of real borrowing despite countries needing to borrow to invest. If we are honest, much of this is about getting Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy over their respective elections. They wanted tight, draconian and Germanic fiscal rules imposed on member states. The treaty was concocted primarily by those two countries, with all the others asked to come in behind it and support the treaty. Perhaps people felt we had no choice.