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— Public resources under stress: victims or causes of the public finance crisis — The seriousness of the public finance crisis has probably its origin in the excess of revenues, taxes and borrowings. Thus, the opportunities given have fed the tendency of public bodies to spend, to make public investments, some of them being of dubious utility. Spending can not easily be curbed and reduced. Keeping it under control requires rules and procedures that put decisions under severe constraints of a level of revenues at the same time bearable and sustainable. All the current reforms, either domestic or European have this objective whatever there are called: balance, golden rule, budgetary discipline. But the huge heterogeneity of public finance, especially regarding the social dimension, and the far reaching fragmentation of public bodies, demands new legal instruments and oblige to deeply revamp the financing mechanisms as well as the sheer bases of public policies.