Benefits and drawbacks of an “expenditure rule”, as well as of a "golden rule", in the EU fiscal framework

Given the current crisis, all fiscal rules have been suspended. When the economy recovers, both expenditure and structural balance rules will be more difficult to apply as the level and growth of potential output will become more uncertain. Focussing on reducing high debt levels might at that point be more appropriate. The economic argument for a golden rule is that debt can be used to finance the creation of public capital. But this implies that any golden rule should only exempt net investment, which is much lower than the gross investment.