What really matters is not what the authors meant to say, it is how their work is read

摘要

The title of this editorial is borrowed from a New York Times article by the famous economist, Paul Krug-man, commenting on the correlation between national debt and economic growth. The point raised by Paul Krugman is one of general application in science. Indeed, he points out that 'a negative correlation between debt and economic performance need not mean that high debt causes low growth. It could just as easily be the other way around with poor economic performance leading to high debt'. He also remarks that, although the economists who originally described the correlation claimed they never asserted a causative relation between debt and depression, this was the way how the relation was read by policy makers in most countries in the 'world, and particularly in Europe.