Summary

Even after Spain’s historic entry into the system of Economic and Monetary Union, many of the economists who advocated an increase in public expenditure and government interventionism vaunted the idea that budgetary balance, the ‘zero deficit’, was nothing more than a whim of those they called ‘market fundamentalists’ or ‘ultra-liberals’, and claimed that it was nothing more than a way of ‘cutting back social welfare’. However, after the change in government in 2004, the favourable economic situation, and above all the widespread acceptance of the idea of a balanced budget on the part of the vast majority of society, led many of them to nail their colours to the balanced budget mast, though in a somewhat obtuse and superficial manner. There is no debate now (at least openly and in public) regarding the need to maintain a balanced budget. However, this doctrinal conversion is unfortunately only apparent, as revealed by the budgetary policy currently being applied. In Spain, a more rational approach has gained ground in the world of ideas, but the economists of this somewhat blinkered government fail to practice what they claimed to believe just a short time ago.