HOW DEBT MAKES CRISES WORSE: Japan reminds strapped officials they need buffer. “When your credit card is nearly maxed out, dealing with emergencies can be tricky. A massive rebuilding effort may stretch Japan to its financial limits. Politicians in Washington and other overspending capitals should take note of the warning.”

Debt limits flexibility in a crisis. So do “entitlements” that can’t easily be changed. But our political class wants to control it all now. The future is someone else’s problem. Japan isn’t much different, because this is characteristic of the sorts of people who go into politics. It’s also a reason not to give those people — who are, by nature, morally and intellectually inferior in many respects — too much control over people’s lives or resources.