Excessive deficits for some imply excessive surpluses in others.
The report also highlighted risk from imbalances in the global financial system, like excessive trade deficits in some countries and excessive surpluses in others.
Along with Bancor, Keynes wanted countries with excessive surpluses to be fined, not least because of what happened during the Depression, when currency wars and gold-hoarding made the world's troubles worse.
And there are many ways to do that -- including, by the way, realistic plans for partial privatization of Social Security, which (unlike the fantasy promises of the Bush campaign) would require the federal government to ante up trillions of dollars to pay off existing obligations, solving the "problem" of excessive surpluses quite easily.
During the 2000 campaign and the initial selling of the 2001 tax cut, the Bush team insisted that the federal government was running an excessive budget surplus, which should be returned to taxpayers.
Yet in retrospect we know that Greenspan's "judgment" -- that tax cuts were needed to prevent excessive budget surpluses -- was a misjudgment of Rumsfeldian proportions.
But the Fed chairman's crystal ball has been cloudy lately; remember how he urged Congress to cut taxes to head off the risk of excessive budget surpluses?
Europe's leaders must also face up to the euro zone's deeper problems, including excessive trade surpluses in Germany and anemic growth prospects almost everywhere else.
The Partisan Chairman: In the first days of the Bush administration, as we've seen, Greenspan gave decisive aid and comfort to the new president, urging Congress to cut taxes in order to prevent excessive budget surpluses.
For example, partial privatization of Social Security -- which Greenspan supports -- would impose "transition costs" in the trillions of dollars, easily taking care of the supposed problem of excessive budget surpluses.
