Feldstein, Martin, (2016), ” A Debt Agenda for the G7″, Project Syndicate, 23 May
On May 26-27, the heads of the Group of Seven leading industrial countries will gather in Japan to discuss common security and economic problems. A major common problem that deserves their attention is the unsustainable increase in the major developed countries’ national debt. Failure to address the explosion of government borrowing will have adverse effects on the global economy and on debt-burdened countries themselves. The problem is bad and getting worse almost everywhere. In the United States, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal government debt doubled over the past decade, from 36% of GDP to 74% of GDP. It also predicts that, under favorable economic assumptions and with no new programs to increase spending or reduce revenue, the debt ratio ten years from now will be 86% of GDP. Even more worrying, the annual deficit ratio will double in the next decade to 4.9% of GDP, putting the debt on track to exceed 100% of GDP.
Relebant posts
- Paczos, Wojtek, Shakhnov,Kirill, (2016), “Sovereign debt issuance and selective default”, EUI Working Paper ECO 2016/04
- Royo, Sebastian, (2014), “Banks and the political economy of the sovereign debt crisis in Italy and Spain”, CES papers