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An idea which (generated too much controversies) originally suggested by David Ricardo (1772–1823) and more recently by Barro, that government deficits do not affect the overall level of demand in an economy.
This is because tax-payers know that any deficit has to be paid later, and so they increase their savings in anticipation of a higher tax bill in future; thus government attempts to stimulate an economy by increasing public spending or cutting taxes, will be rendered impotent by private sector reaction.
The equivalence can be seen as part of a thread of economic thinking which holds that only decisions about real variables (e.g., consumption and production) matter, and that decisions about financing will, in a perfectly functioning market, never have an effect.