This article explores the arguments for and against the use of government debt to finance large-scale public investments. Relative to the options of higher taxation or lower other expenditures, debt finance means that both the costs and the benefits of the investment fall on future generations....

Global imbalances refer to current account surpluses and deficits. This is a form of international intertemporal trade, and the neoclassical approach suggests that there are gains from trade, and hence there may be no problem created by global imbalances. This paper presents qualifications to...

The international current account imbalance, where the United States has a vast deficit and several countries, notably Japan, China, Germany and the oil exporters have corresponding surpluses, is usually seen as a problem. The argument here is that current account imbalances simply indicate...

This paper expounds a story in four stages to explain the world credit crisis, namely: (1) too much credit - an international perspective, (2) too much risk - reaction to low real interest rate, (3) the fatal flaw - the new complex financial instruments, and (4) the panic- bank lending dries up....

Conservative critics of Keynesian fiscal stimulus policies usually criticise such policies because of the increase in public debt that results. Hence a burden on future taxpayers would be imposed. But there are qualifications. Firstly, if there is an initial output gap that cannot be eliminated...

This paper expounds the concept of Dutch Disease as it applies currently to Australia, noting the various gains and losses resulting from the Australian mining boom. “Dutch Disease” refers to the adverse effects through real exchange rate appreciation that such a boom can have on various...