The idea of a debt ceiling is to place a limit on how much the government can borrow. (you could think of it like a limit on your credit card) For example, in July 2011, the US debt ceiling was $14.3 trillion (£8.8 trillion) The idea of having a debt ceiling is that The government …
Hello. You mention national debt and public sector debt. Are they the same? Yes, the official measures is the public sector net debt. Often people refer to this as the national debt. (there once was an official statistics called national debt, but this was discontinued quite a while back). However, when people talk of national …
Readers Question: I have been interested in the US economy in the last few months, and with current news of their $14 trillion debt problem heating up, I’m wondering could the demand for dollars go down, if they were possible to have a similar or close problems of debt issues like Greece, and if the …
Readers Question: Should Greece Leave the Euro? Arguments for and against Greece leaving the Euro. One thing is clear, the Greek situation is dire. Government debt is very high, yet extremely harsh austerity measures have only succeeded in pushing the economy back into recession and leading to much higher unemployment. Within the Eurozone, Greece is …
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernake recently warned that deep spending cuts could be “self-defeating to the still-fragile recovery”. Recent data showed that the global economic recovery remains fragile. The pace of economic growth is being held back by a combination of falling house prices, weak bank lending, high oil prices and lack …
Readers Question: On Jan 2009 I asked a question on the greek current account deficit, the fixed EUR rate, the lack of competitiveness and the debt load and you expanded brilliantly on the dangers of the twin deficits and the deteriorating Greek credit quality. Now I just need to make a comment that all the …
Source: OECD The shaded area represents the range of statistics amongst OECD countries from highest to lowest. The OECD have recently published a report on the UK economy. These graphs illustrate how the UK is performing against other OECD Countries. Economic Growth (GDP index) During 2008, the UK’s decline in GDP was similar to the …
The Irish economy is in crisis because: Irish Banks lost substantial sums in the credit bubble and bust, this meant the Irish government had to bail them out. After several years of high growth, the Irish economy went into recession. Recent austerity measures (spending cuts) have caused a double dip recession and the current turmoil …