Recent total government budget deficits, now running at about 3.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), have managed to partially rescue the U.S. economy from the full consequences of its long, debt-driven boom. But if we are to avoid a steep recession, much more will be needed

The fiscal health of the Philippines has improved significantly over the past decade. Notwithstanding the dividends from reforms, challenges remain for the Philippines on the fiscal side. Policy coordination, primarily through the Development Budget Coordinating Committee, has helped to reduce...

The Greek debt restructuring of 2012 stands out in the history of sovereign defaults. It achieved very large debt relief – over 50 per cent of 2012 GDP – with minimal financial disruption, using a combination of new legal techniques, exceptionally large cash incentives, and official sector...

Mainstream macroeconomists have a tendency to see debt as a flow variable, whereas heterodox economists emphasizes that debt should be understood as a stock-flow component in the economy. In this way changes in debt has to do with adjustments in assets and liabilities as well as in the servicing...

The often lambasted bailout loans granted by Europe and the IMF to Greece since 2010 have allowed the Greek government to enjoy effective funding costs not just similar but even much better than those of the highest quality sovereign debtors. Thanks to the bailouts and their incredibly generous...

Debt is sustainable at a competitive equilibrium due solely to the reputation of debtors for repayment; that is, even absent collateral or legal sanctions available to creditors. In the presence of uninsurable risks, or in an asset market that is incomplete, when the rate of interest falls...

Debt sustainability is fundamentally a probabilistic concept: Debt is rarely sustainable with probability one. We propose an index of external debt sustainability that reflects this uncertainty. Namely we construct the index as the probability that, at the current exchange rate, net external...

Debt sustainability is fundamentally a probabilistic concept: Debt is rarely sustainable with probability one. We propose an index of external debt sustainability that reflects this uncertainty. Namely we construct the index as the probability that, at the current exchange rate, net external...