[colindoc84]

'Deficits dont matter' is a huge strawman. No where in the article does it imply this, it suggests that the government can mobilise resources and increase demand. In other words, it can organise people to produce more instead of sitting around, and use the surplus of that production to pay off who they owe. Having people sit around is bad, and adding to those people is worse. The government can get them to do something and that adds to the economy.

Also, you used the example of Greece or Italy. I assume you put Spain in the same category, so its interesting to note that Spain was running a surplus in the years leading up to the crisis.

Budget deficits are not the be all-end all of government finance. Deficits matter, but relative to other metrics.