This paper documents a long-standing stability in the relationship between outstanding debt and economic activity in the United States, and explores the implications for capital formation of several hypotheses that could explain this observed phenomenon. The aggregate of outstanding credit...

In the absence of major policy changes, federal government budget deficits will probably constitute a serious impediment to any increase inthe U.S. economy's net investment rate, and may even depress the investment rate still further, during the latter 1980s. The U.S. Government's outstanding...

The substantial post war decline in the U.S. saving rate has added great impetus to the debate over whether public debt policy crowds out saving. Rather than attempting to reject specific saving models, empirical research on debt policy and savings has primarily focused on the impact of...