During the primary World War (WWI) all the belligerents used a mixture of taxation, inflation, domestic debt and borrowing abroad to finance their growth in public spending, with the emphasis on the latter three. They confirmed that the West German share of whole world production had grown from 6.6 % in 1965 to 7.9 % by 1975. Twelve years later, in 1987, nonetheless, it had fallen to 7.4 p.c, largely due to the more rapid development of Japan and other Asian states. Its annual deficit hovered r...