Saturday, November 29, 2014

29/11/2014: Living in a Ponzi Land of Debt Overhang


An excellent interview with Daniel Stelter on the problem of debt overhang:
http://janelanaweb.com/trends/we-all-are-in-a-ponzi-world-right-now-hoping-to-be-bailed-out-by-the-next-person-interview-with-daniel-stelter/

Worth a read.

One point I disagree with is the idea that debt mutualisation across EU states will solve the problem. It will not: the quantum of debt will not be reduced by mutualisation. We need a QE-like targeted debt deleveraging facilitated by the ECB. Not a 'warehouse for debt' but a debt furnace. 

2 comments:

TrueEconomics said...

Not to forget the risk of this, I do hope we have moved on from that stage in human history when large scale wars were deemed 'solutions' to economic or social or demographic problems. That said, of course, as we can see in Ukraine & other parts of the world, at a regional level, we have moved not far enough.

TrueEconomics said...

I accidentally erased the comment to which I was replying. Here it is:

"Anonymous:

austerity, growth, inflation, default, or orderly debt restructuring.

He forgot to mention Option 6

War - Surprising, given this year is the 100th Anniversary of the great war, the war to end all wars, or so our glorious leaders claimed."