That our profligate consumption requires five planets is a catchy story, but it is wrong.

In addition, state bonds are not treated as equals, and the markets penalize profligate states.

Greece s creditors, by contrast, felt that they had generously saved a profligate country from bankruptcy.

But once American households rebuild their retirement accounts, they may return to their profligate ways.

With no limit, profligate countries could go on a spending spree at the expense of thriftier ones.

Finally, exposure to the discipline of financial markets would make it harder for profligate governments to misbehave.

Those who blame the IMF see the problem as self inflicted through profligate and corrupt spending by Argentina.

Why should poor countries worry about how deforestation contributes to global warming when rich countries remain so profligate?

While it relies on profligate subsidies and cash handouts, Thaksinomics also banks on structural reforms to propel economic growth.

Then he asked, Why should China sacrifice our growth so that the West can continue to be profligate and stupid?

For most of the last decade, Kazakhstan gorged on profligate lending, courtesy of global banks just like much of southern Europe.

Circumstantial evidence does indeed point to our profligate burning of fossil fuels and perhaps also to its impact on global warming.

Across sub Saharan Africa, many of the world's poorest people struggle with the crippling legacy of profligate lending to corrupt, oppressive rulers.

Germany worries that, without strict supervision of banks and budgets, it will be left holding the bag for its more profligate neighbors.

For this, thank the often abused Euro, for it has anchored the once profligate nations of the Mediterranean in German style monetary discipline.

A more substantial constraint would be to establish a tougher disciplinary regime on fiscally profligate countries as part of a reinforced institutional framework.

All of the Western religions begin with the notion of Eden, and descend through a kind of profligate present to a very ugly future.

THE COUNTESS LYDIA IVANOVNA when quite a young and ecstatic girl was married to a rich, aristocratic, very good natured, and most jovial profligate.

And now, Buiter and Sibert argue convincingly, the ECB is giving the market less scope to reward the thrifty and penalize the profligate than it should.

Any profligate country that is suddenly forced to live within its means has a huge adjustment to make, even if all of its past debts are forgiven.

In this era, the government can t get away with stealing elections, throwing political opponents in jail, expropriating foreign or domestic private assets, large scale corruption, or profligate spending.

To be sure, coal and oil companies would suffer, and big polluting countries like the US would obviously pay a higher price than those with a less profligate lifestyle.

So were the profligate borrow and spend policies and the use of public sector hiring to co opt political factions, both of which resulted in Lebanon s massive debt problem.

In addition, markets of all sizes and levels of development continue to suffer from protectionism, restrictions on foreign capital flows, rising economic populism, and profligate or poorly targeted welfare programs.

Are Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, and other Europeans really supposed to embrace an austerity program imposed on them because prevailing wisdom in Germany and other northern countries considers them profligate and lazy?

Are Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, and other Europeans really supposed to embrace an austerity program imposed on them because prevailing wisdom in Germany and other northern countries considers them profligate and lazy?

Human nature is such that voluntary actions, either by individuals or by nations, cannot be relied upon to lead to the essential constraints on profligate tendencies at such a large scale.

Banks will not lend if the economy is in the doldrums, and American households will be particularly reluctant to borrow at least in the profligate ways they borrowed prior to the crisis.

Banks will not lend if the economy is in the doldrums, and American households will be particularly reluctant to borrow at least in the profligate ways they borrowed prior to the crisis.

But once American households rebuild their retirement accounts, they may return to their profligate ways. Indeed, the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve are doing all they can to pump up US spending.

Even if the financial sector were fully repaired, and even if these profligate Americans hadn t learned a lesson about the importance of saving, their consumption would be limited to 100 of their income.

The current president of the European Union s Council of Ministers, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, openly voiced the angry mood of many European leaders when he described America s profligate approach to fiscal policy as the road to hell.

The institutional foundations of stable long run fiscal policy are being eroded. And now, Buiter and Sibert argue convincingly, the ECB is giving the market less scope to reward the thrifty and penalize the profligate than it should.

As a result, the difference between the debt positions of Finland and Italy, the most prudent and most profligate euro zone members, shot up to 73.3 percentage points in 2009. (The situation is even worse for government deficits.)

Developing countries ask why they should pay attention to global warming if rich countries are not prepared to curtail their own emissions sharply? Why should poor countries worry about how deforestation contributes to global warming when rich countries remain so profligate?

But there is also a more troubling possibility if, by proceeding on our current profligate path, we succeed in making natural resources scarce, we will require a new wave of technology, regardless of the cost, to rescue us from calamity.

Finally, the reduction of global imbalances implies that the current account deficits of profligate economies (the US and other Anglo Saxon countries) will narrow the current account surpluses of over saving countries (China and other emerging markets, Germany, and Japan).

The Thai economy emerged out of its post 1997 crisis doldrums under Thaksin s watch, and is now firmly positioned on a 6 annual growth trajectory. While it relies on profligate subsidies and cash handouts, Thaksinomics also banks on structural reforms to propel economic growth.

Human nature is such that voluntary actions, either by individuals or by nations, cannot be relied upon to lead to the essential constraints on profligate tendencies at such a large scale. So we need to tighten the feedback loops and create stronger incentives for behaviors that advance the common good, including that of future generations.

Circumstantial evidence does indeed point to our profligate burning of fossil fuels and perhaps also to its impact on global warming. Since 1900 the global temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and ocean surface waters has risen by 0.5 1 degree Celsius, and the prime suspect is atmospheric carbon dioxide, CO2, which is second only to water vapor in its greenhouse effect.

Part of Hariri s legacy was the award of quasi monopolistic licences to cronies for mobile telephones, for example and the sale of government debt at highly profitable rates to local banks in which had a direct interest. So were the profligate borrow and spend policies and the use of public sector hiring to co opt political factions, both of which resulted in Lebanon s massive debt problem.