It Is Private, Not Public Finances that Are Out of Whack
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Richard C. Koo
Abstract
When the private sector as a whole is forced into debt minimization following the bursting of a debt-financed bubble, the money multiplier turns negative at the margin and government borrowing and spending become essential in maintaining both the GDP and money supply. With unborrowed private savings languishing in the financial system, the market also encourages government borrowing in the form of low bond yields which is a natural corrective mechanism of an economy suffering from balance sheet recession. In the eurozone, this corrective mechanism fails because of the ease of capital flight between government bond markets within the currency zone.
© 2019 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Fiscal Stability of High-Debt Nations under Volatile Economic Conditions
- Sovereign Default Risk and Banks in a Monetary Union
- Public Debt and Price Stability
- Public Debt in Post-1850 German Economic Thought vis-à-vis the Pre-1850 British Classical School
- Budget Rules and Fiscal Policy: Ten Lessons from Theory and Evidence
- Balanced Budget Requirements and Debt Brakes Feasibility and Enforcement
- On the Political Economy of Public Deficits and Debt
- Democracy, Elections and Government Budget Deficits
- The Politics of Public Debt: Neoliberalism, Capitalist Development and the Restructuring of the State
- It Is Private, Not Public Finances that Are Out of Whack
- Public and Private Debt: The Historical Record (1870–2010)
- What Is the Value of Sovereign Ratings?
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Fiscal Stability of High-Debt Nations under Volatile Economic Conditions
- Sovereign Default Risk and Banks in a Monetary Union
- Public Debt and Price Stability
- Public Debt in Post-1850 German Economic Thought vis-à-vis the Pre-1850 British Classical School
- Budget Rules and Fiscal Policy: Ten Lessons from Theory and Evidence
- Balanced Budget Requirements and Debt Brakes Feasibility and Enforcement
- On the Political Economy of Public Deficits and Debt
- Democracy, Elections and Government Budget Deficits
- The Politics of Public Debt: Neoliberalism, Capitalist Development and the Restructuring of the State
- It Is Private, Not Public Finances that Are Out of Whack
- Public and Private Debt: The Historical Record (1870–2010)
- What Is the Value of Sovereign Ratings?