Why economists keep getting policies wrong 19 Feb, 2021 04:28 AM 4 minutes to read The growing debt load in the current climate is something we should be concerned about, writes Philip Stevens. The growing debt load in the current climate is something we should be concerned about, writes Philip Stevens. Financial Times By: Philip Stephens The other week I caught sight of a headline declaring that the IMF was warning against cuts in public spending and borrowing. The report stopped me in my tracks. After half a century or so as keeper of the sacred flame of fiscal prudence, the IMF was telling policymakers in rich industrial nations they should not fret over huge build-ups of public debt during the Covid-19 crisis. John Maynard Keynes had been disinterred, and the world turned upside down.