Recovering from debt drag usually requires spending restraint and better budget practices. American independence left states with high and uneven debt burdens. Beyond replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution, an important deal had the federal government absorb states’ war debts and permanently locate on the Potomac River. The Treasury Department developed debt management tools for a fiscally integrated country while Congress spent prudently. U.S. states borrowed heavily to boost industry in the early nineteenth century, but the fallout from an 1837 economic crisis led to states defaulting on their debts. Bond buyers demanded legal restraints on state and local borrowing. Annual balance was typical, but states are turning to structural balance rules to balance over the medium term. Sweden’s welfare state drove rapid debt accumulation in the early 1990s. Three decades of spending restraint and systemic budget upgrades got the debt under control and reduced interest rates. Switzerland’s central government debt grew quickly in the late 1990s. In 2001, the assembly’s referred constitutional amendment got 85 percent support from voters, and the Swiss debt brake was born. Soon thereafter, the assembly added statutory mechanisms, reined in spending, and brought down the debt burden.