The Five Macrogovernors

Engine: Architecture

Framing

The Accord operates through five automatic stabilizers that fire within statutory corridors without congressional action. Four are reactive — they respond to specific shock signals. One, Debt Sunset, is proactive — it adjusts continuously based on forward-looking fiscal trajectory.

1. Speculation Brake

Trigger: Housing or equity surge (National Statistics Board-defined thresholds)

Mechanism: Financial Transactions Tax rises to 0.25%; Federal Housing Standards Board lowers non-primary residence LTV to 60%

Corridor: Financial Transactions Tax 0.1–0.25%; LTV 60–100%

2. Input Shield

Trigger: Energy price up 15%+ in a quarter (EIA data)

Mechanism: Carbon escalator pause 1 year; Energy Stipend +25% one-time

Corridor: Pause 0–1 year; stipend 1×–1.25×

3. Healthcare Cost Brake

Trigger: access-adjusted health spending exceeds 17.4% of GDP (warning) or 19.61% (outer backstop), on CMS/American Healthcare Quality Board data

Mechanism: American Healthcare Quality Board fee clawback of 2% (no tax adjustment)

Corridor: Clawback 0–2%

4. Financial Stability

Trigger: Interbank rate up 200bp+ for 3 business days (Fed Funds data)

Mechanism: Financial Stability and Disbursement Board auto-secured lending from Financial Stability Reserve

Corridor: Max 20% of Reserve (first deployment trigger)

5. Debt Sunset (v10)

Trigger: the Statistics Board's projected retirement date has moved two or more years beyond, or ahead of, the most recent retirement date

Mechanism: the top income rate, the VAT and the payroll rate move together, in steps sized to bring the projected date back to within one year; automatic moves limited to a total of +2.0pp on the top income rate, +2.0pp on the VAT and +0.5pp on the payroll rate from the launch rates, beyond which Congress must act

Launch: the Board sets the launch rates in Year 1 so the path is on track for retirement by 2080

Debt Sunset's distinctive role

The four domain governors are reactive. Debt Sunset is proactive — it responds to the projected retirement date rather than to a shock signal. Debt Sunset is cause-agnostic: it responds to the projected date regardless of why it moved. Debt Sunset is the fiscal backstop.

Coupling preserves progressivity

Debt Sunset's coupling of payroll tax + top rate in 1:1 steps means that when rates rise to meet fiscal pressure, they rise on both payrolls and high-income filers proportionally.