The textbook optimal policy response to an increase in government debt is simple --- monetary policy should actively target inflation, and fiscal policy should smooth taxes while ensuring debt sustainability. Such policy prescriptions presuppose an ability to commit. Without that ability, the...

The textbook optimal policy response to an increase in government debt is simple—monetary policy should actively target inflation, and fiscal policy should smooth taxes while ensuring debt sustainability. Such policy prescriptions presuppose an ability to commit. Without that ability, the...

The paper is organized around the following question: when the economy moves from a debtGDP level where the probability of default is nil to a higher level the "fiscal limit" where the default probability is non-negligible, how do the effects of routine monetary operations designed to achieve...