Economics focus  Ties that sometimes bind  Fiscal rules to
ensure budgetary responsibility are often ignored. They can
still be useful  See article  Readers' comments    In my
opinion, fiscal rules are necessary and have their use. However,
it is far distant enough. The nature of democratic politics is
winning the election through promising tax cuts and public
spending. So no matter how many fiscal rules have been made, the
budget deficit is increasing high thanks to the rigidity. Greece
is a good example of this. So the discussion should not been
limit at the rules but a further layer.  The Prospective
Economist  Ugo Troiano (Harvard), Veronica Grembi and Tommaso
Nannicini (Bocconi) have a draft of a paper (circulating under
the title "Do Fiscal Rules Matter? A Difference-in-
Discontinuities Design") that has very convincing evidence on
the power of fiscal rules for Italian cities. I found no draft
online but it might be worth looking up or contacting the
authors.   Very funny to know those exact countries wh