Government borrowing is cheap but not without risks

Ken Rogoff's latest Project Syndicate piece looks at the current trend for funding spending promises by taking on more debt, with many politicians arguing that low interest rates offer a justification for this.

His view is that there are a number of reasons for a more cautious approach, not least because there's no guarantee that interest rates are going to stay low ad infinitum, and the extent to which debt might impinge upon the ability of states to finance seemingly ever-larger expenditures on ageing populations.

In short, it urges care: suggesting that extrapolating into the future on the basis of the past isn't always wise.