Even through the recession, debts have continued to grow in real terms, as people have borrowed more to sustain their spending.

ECONOMIST: World economy

The challenge is to get the amount of money growth that results roughly in line with the capacity of the economy to grow in real terms around 3-4 percent per year at full employment, somewhat faster at 9.6 percent unemployment.

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In real terms, spending would continue to grow, but at least the leviathan would start to be cut down to size.

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