The current favorite bogeyman is public debt.

Debt, however, is a burden imposed by current citizens on future generations.

For starters, unlike the ECB s current quantitative easing, it would involve no debt monetization.

As during the Great Depression and in many debt restructurings, it makes sense in the current contingency to mandate partial debt forgiveness or a debt for equity swap in the financial sector.

Given this, we should expect Greek debt yields to rise further, despite the current IMF program.

Twin current account and fiscal deficits (and or currency and debt maturity mismatches) were the rule.

With the current account deficit now exceeding 5 of GDP, US foreign debt is rising fast.

Its budget and current account deficits are large, public debt is high, banks are bad, and foreign short term debt is high relative to reserves.

Instead, they focused exclusively on US foreign debt, ignoring household debt (mortgage and consumer debt), public debt, business debt, and financial debt.

One of the most worrying is the same which fueled the current crisis in the eurozone mushrooming public debt.

Would the EFSF be retiring Greek debt at bargain prices or would it be providing insurance to current bondholders?

Debt

Small purchases at current panic prices, vulture fund style, are always possible, but they do not promise substantial debt relief.

Regardless of how the current impasse is resolved, the ruling raises many questions for issuers and holders of sovereign debt.

Small purchases at current panic prices, vulture fund style, are always possible, but they do not promise substantial debt relief.

A vicious circle of public finance deficits, current account gaps, worsening external debt dynamics, and stagnating growth can then set in.

More debt relief encompassing more countries and more debt (including bilateral debt) is needed.

More debt relief encompassing more countries and more debt (including bilateral debt) is needed.

A country drowning in debt needs debt restructuring.

Monitoring external balances can be an effective tool to measure future default risks, since sustained current account deficits lead to a growth in net foreign debt. Moreover, there is a direct relationship between the EMU countries private sector debt dynamics and their current account imbalances within the euro zone.

Public debt includes not only the federal government s current 13.2 trillion, but another 3 trillion owed by America s states, counties, and cities.

So the market does not seem to care that countries have different potentials to generate exports to fund the financial flows needed for debt repayments, or different current and projected debt to GDP ratios.

Moreover, there is a direct relationship between the EMU countries private sector debt dynamics and their current account imbalances within the euro zone.

At some point, yields might become so high that the government concerned could not refinance its maturing debt or finance its current expenses.

Rescuing Italy with a public debt of 1.8 billion Euros would be too much for the current financial defenses of the euro zone.

Unsustainable private debt problems must be resolved by defaults, debt reductions, and conversion of debt into equity.

The country simply cannot keep on piling debt upon debt.

Keeping Current

Current value

Current File

If foreign debt matters more than public debt, the key variable requiring adjustment is the external deficit, not the fiscal deficit. A country that has a balanced current account does not need any additional foreign capital.

Debt Friendly Stimulus

China s Green Debt

Debt and Delusion

The Debt Delusion

Europe s Debt Wish

(d) Debt burden

What's your debt?

But, whatever form the default takes, the current owners of Greek debt will get less than the full amount that they are now owed.

Meanwhile, the debt restructuring for which the eurozone not just Greece is crying out is unlikely to be politically acceptable in the current climate.

Consider China, where the saving and investment rates are near 40 , where the current account is in surplus and there is no public debt.

This also implies that if Greece could escape from its current recession, its national debt would decline, both absolutely and as a share of GDP.

Proposals to limit moral hazard, meanwhile, would do so by limiting Eurobonds to 60 of GDP the eurozone s current ceiling for member states public debt.

This raises the question of whether Japan s current problems sluggish growth, high public debt, and rapid population aging presage a similar trend across East Asia.

The US, benefiting from the exorbitant privilege of issuing debt denominated in its own currency, has run current account deficits for more than 30 years.