Can the growth in the U.S. current account deficit be sustained? How does the flow of deficits feed the stock of debt? And how will the burden of servicing this debt affect future deficits and economic growth? These are some of the questions we address in this Strategic Analysis

This paper examines the issue of the Greek public debt from different perspectives. We provide a historical discussion of the accumulation of Greece's public debt since the 1960s and the role of public debt in the recent crisis. We show that the austerity imposed since 2010 has been unsuccessful...

After reviewing the main determinants of the current eurozone crisis, this paper discusses the feasibility of introducing fiscal currencies as a way to restore fiscal space in peripheral countries, like Greece, that have so far adopted austerity measures in order to abide by their commitments to...

In this paper, we argue that the United States and the rest of the world's economies will not be able to achieve balanced growth and full employment unless they are able to agree upon and implement an entirely new way of running the global economy. The economic recovery plans currently under...

Employment in Greece is in free fall, with more than one million jobs lost since October 2008--a drop of more than 28 percent. In March, the "official" unemployment rate was 27.4 percent, the highest level seen in any industrialized country in the free world during the last 30 years. In this...

What are the prospects for economic recovery if Greece continues to follow the troika strategy of fiscal austerity and internal devaluation, with the aim of increasing competitiveness and thus net exports? Our latest strategic analysis indicates that the unprecedented decline in real and nominal...

Rising home prices and low interest rates have fueled the recent surge in mortgage borrowing and enabled consumers to spend at high rates relative to their income. Low interest rates have outerbalanced. The growth in debt and acted to dampen the growth in household debt-service burdens. As past...

This study finds that while present monetary and fiscal policy stances are likely to lead to robust growth and improved employment, this would come only at the expense of high government deficits, record foreign deficits, and rising ratios of government and foreign debt relative to GDP. Even...

The paper argues in favor of significant budget deficits based on the understanding that the expansion of the 1990s was fueled by a great build-up of debt, and that this would eventually give way to a severe recession unless offset by a strong fiscal stimulus. In 2001, with the total government...

As we projected in the previous strategic analysis paper, the U.S. economy experienced growth rates higher than 4 percent in 2004. The question we want to raise in this new strategic analysis paper is whether these rates will persist or come back down. We believe that several signs point in the...