ABSTRACT
This interview was the first time I met Robert Eisner. It was in July 1997, on a beautiful day at the scenic campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. At the time I was still living in Sweden, and in great conscientious woes about the hackneyed domestic debate on the budget deficit and the national debt. Briefly put, the general notion was that the deficit meant mortgaging our grandchildren and that the country was facing state bankruptcy. In the face of economic depression and doubledigit unemployment, the government in 1996 pushed through a budget consolidation of monumental proportions. The minister of finance proudly declared that Sweden would become the “World Champion in Budget Consolidation.” And so she did. Objections were not heard, in fact, given the ferocious media campaign, few if any dared questioning anything.
