American attitudes toward fiscal sacrifice in war have followed a similar arc as described for the Civil War.
José Manuel Durão Barroso, the centre-right prime minister, relishes this story as evidence of how his fiscal rigour is changing attitudes in a country long used to government overspending.
The initial group composing the High Council contributed a great deal to the basic pattern of Louis's reign, particularly in military, fiscal, naval, and commercial attitudes, partly because many of those who followed as ministers came from the same tightly knit group of royal servants.
This has implications far beyond eastern Germany as it shows how German attitudes to fiscal transfers have hardened – just as the country is being called on to contribute the lion's share of the bailouts to the eurozone's struggling members.
And the Czech Republic, with a deficit of 7.6%, is displaying a positively bohemian attitude to fiscal responsibility.Need they worry?
It has become fashionable to apply the term "libertarian" to almost any group that takes a more conservative attitude toward fiscal policy than toward social policy and generally takes a non-interventionist view of foreign policy.
During the crisis the ECB maintained a holier-than-thou attitude of fiscal responsibility while looking down their noses at expansive stimulus programs in the U.S.
Liberals have been afraid to press for an end to mass incarceration for fear of looking "soft on crime," but now that conservatives are changing their attitudes due to fiscal factors, the conversation seems politically safer.
These days, multinational companies stand accused of taking a similarly haughty attitude to their fiscal affairs, shifting profits offshore to cut their tax bills.
During the hearing, Mr Cameron was also questioned about the ongoing financial crisis in the eurozone and his attitude toward greater fiscal integration among other European nations.
