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But it was far from alone. Spain ran out of money on Saturday. Over in Romania, the bank account was empty as of yesterday. Next week, Poland will be out of cash, followed by Italy, which will be officially skint on Nov 26. In the UK, our politicians will have officially spent all the income tax, corporation tax, VAT, fuel duty they take from us by Dec 7.

Across Europe as a whole, central governments will be out of money on Dec 6. Only four EU countries manage to make it through Christmas and into the new year still in the black. They are Cyprus, Malta, Germany, and a surprisingly thrifty Sweden, which gets all the way to Jan 20. They are the exception, however. The norm is now for spending to be way ahead of the money collected in taxes.

That is not always a problem, of course. Very few people would argue that we should go back to the days before Keynes where any kind of deficit in even the most dire of circumstances was regarded a sign that the world was about to end. In a recession, it makes sense for governments to borrow a bit more, and get businesses moving again and people back into work. Nor is there necessarily anything wrong with government borrowing to invest, although a lot of what it “invests” in may not necessarily have the returns that are promised.

But there is a difference between that and huge and persistent deficits. The European economy, helped along by a couple of trillion euros of printed money, is doing OK this year. The EU as a whole is forecast to expand by 2.3 per cent, the fastest pace in a decade. The deficits are not an emergency response to a sudden downturn. They are built into the system. That is worrying – for three reasons.