It's quite common, particularly in an financial crisis, for analogies to be drawn between domestic and national economics. A politician will say that as families must balance the books, so must a government. (Mrs Thatcher was a past master at this, reminding everyone that she had no economic theories apart from those learnt as a grocer's daughter.) Or it might be noted that the word 'economics' comes from the Greek for 'housekeeping'. (The Archbishop of Canterbury just did it, the Oxbridge version of Mrs Thatcher's point.) It's a homely way of talking about the subject, an attempt to tame a matter that is wildly complex.

I don't know much about economics, but this is surely an almost entirely misleading comparison, as the economics of the home is more or less entirely unlike that of a nation. Governments spend to invest and provide services. Families spend to consume and buy services. When governments borrow multiples of their annual income markets go into a panic. When families borrow multiples of their annual income we call it a mortgage. Governments print money all the time, to increase the money supply; the only question is how much they print. If a family decided to print money, it'd be marched into court.