Following the financial crisis effects, the issue of debt sustainability became of global importance, even for international security reasons. In the EU, despite post-crisis fiscal austerity measures aimed at rebalancing the public finances, the debt-to-GDP ratio continued to deteriorate. At...

Despite the governments took rescue and/or stimulus packages, signs of recovery occurring in 2009 and 2010, the global growth sustainability seems uncertain. Romania was hit hard by the crisis, suffering a severe contraction of the economy, estimated at 7.1 percent in 2009. The worsening of the...

Even if one could not say that governments and international organizations took the most appropriate rescue and/or stimulus packages, the worst effects of the financial crisis seem to be overcome. Signs of recovery occurred in the developed countries by the end of 2009, but the question of...

The management of government debt and assets has important implications for fiscal positions. Debt managers aim to secure non-interrupted funding at lowest medium-term costs subject to risks. Massive crisis-related increases in government debt in most OECD countries and increased risks on the...

The paper shows that privatisation can contribute to the decrease of net public debt, but at the same time can decrease the Public Sector Net Worth. This is defined as the difference between public sector assets and liabilities. The UK in the 1980s and 1990s is an example of parallelism between...

The U.S. government has made a set of promises that it cannot keep. The current level of outstanding debt is a relatively small part of the problem. Therefore, inflation is unlikely to solve the problem. The promises that are most important to change are Social Security and Medicare. It is easy...

The reduction of Greek sovereign debt by €106 billion, agreed in the second bailout package of February 2012, is the largest in history. Nevertheless, immediately after publishing the key terms of the package, doubts arose whether it would achieve its goals: to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to...

The recent European debt crisis has sparked a heated debate on the merits of fiscal austerity. Since the main objective of the proposed fiscal tightenings is to reduce sovereign default risk, the solution to this debate depends on the costs of a sovereign debt restructuring. One important cost...

This paper considers the economic and political drivers of sovereign default, focusing on countries rich enough to render sovereign default a ‘won’t pay’ rather than a ‘can’t pay’ phenomenon. Unlike many private contracts, sovereign debt contracts rely almost exclusively on...