Daily Inspiration Quote by William Vickrey

Vickrey’s line takes a scalpel to one of politics’ most durable stage props: the “balanced budget” as proof of virtue. Calling it “nominal” is the tell. He’s not arguing against fiscal responsibility; he’s arguing against bookkeeping as theater, where the ledger is made to look tidy while the underlying economy is left to wobble. A budget can be balanced in ways that are economically reckless - by deferring maintenance, hollowing out public investment, or shifting costs onto households and local governments. The balance is “spurious” because it mistakes an accounting snapshot for a living system.

The subtext is Keynesian and deeply pragmatic: deficits and surpluses are tools, not moral verdicts. In a downturn, obsessing over balance can turn policy into self-sabotage, pulling demand out of the economy when it’s already weak. In a boom, fetishizing balance can distract from smarter questions: Are we investing well? Are we taxing rationally? Are we managing inflation and inequality?

“Mischief” is a deliberately old-fashioned word doing modern work. It implies not just error but preventable harm - austerity dressed up as prudence, public goods traded for talking points. As an educator-economist (and a Nobel laureate), Vickrey is also taking aim at civic misunderstanding: politicians sell the household analogy (“tighten the belt”), and voters are invited to applaud pain as discipline. His intent is to reframe the debate from symbolic balance to real outcomes: employment, productivity, stability, and the distribution of who pays when government pretends math is morality.