Probably one of the most deep seated erronious  views is that if "I have to balance my checkbook, so does the country." Paul Krugman highlights that a country is not a company. 

The first few sentences are ominous:

College students who plan to go into business often major in economics, but few believe that they will end up using what they hear in the lecture hall. Those students understand a fundamental truth: What they learn in economics courses won’t help them run a business. The converse is also true: What people learn from running a business won’t help them formulate economic policy. A country is not a big corporation. The habits of mind that make a great business leader are not, in general, those that make a great economic analyst; an executive who has made $1 billion is rarely the right person to turn to for advice about a $6 trillion economy. 

Then there is a 2014 addendum that you can read in (here)