Since the early 1990s, and the severe economic crisis that hit European economies, the worsening of public deficits and debts has created a disorder over the impact and very foundations of active government fiscal policies. On the one hand, rising government deficits may have been perceived by some as the main cause of higher interest rates, through the crowding out effect. On the other hand, the usefulness and effectiveness of fiscal policy has been questioned. This second approach was reinforced by the findings of an article by Giavazzi and Pagano (G -P) published in 1990, an inevitable reference to articles concerning what is now known as ‘expansionary fiscal contractions’. The interest of these economists in Denmark was then due to the remarkable simultaneous nature of three phenomena between 1982 and 1986: strong economic recovery, abrupt fiscal restraint (Graph 1), and a sharp fall in the household saving rate (Graph 2)...