Long-run? Only if your economy is on a stagnant or negative nominal growth path. In a nominally growing economy, the sovereign should run moderate cycle-averaged deficits to accommodate the private sector's need for sovereign securities.

Short-run? Obviously, during a bubble you should tax until the bubble stops. Which means that you may be running a surplus for a while. But if you have bubbles on a regular basis then You're Doing It Wrong.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.