The multiple crises – economic, social, political, ecological and climate-related – now facing most people in the world require dramatically increased levels of social protection spending. Yet, the fiscal space for such spending (which increased briefly in a relatively few rich countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, but not elsewhere) has shrunk in the past few years. Countries riddled with sovereign debt are forced to pay debt service often in excess of not just social protection spending but also public expenditure on health and education. Other low- and middle-income countries are worried about running deficits that would reduce their standing in financial markets. In periods of downswing, these economies typically face further punishment from financial investors that further reduce fiscal space. Pervasive illicit financial flows restrict government’s capacities to raise revenues from progressive taxation. Foreign aid flows from advanced countries have dwindled to a trickle and are increasingly diverted to war efforts of allied states or funding of refugees within ‘donor’ countries.1 When government finances are squeezed, social protection spending is often the first to be cut. Concerns about all of this are regularly expressed in national and global policy circles. Yet, within and across countries, as well as in the multilateral financial system, the proposed responses have been limited and halting at best, and sometimes even counterproductive at worst. To move forward in any meaningful way, it is important to be realistic, and to identify which strategies have not/are not working, and which have some chances of success with changes in the system.