Finance & economics | Free exchange

How will politicians escape enormous public debts?

They will be unable to repeat the tricks of the 19th and 20th centuries

A maze on a dollar banknote
Image: Alberto Miranda

The world’s public finances look increasingly precarious. In the year to July America’s federal government borrowed $2.3trn, or 8.6% of GDP—the sort of deficit usually seen during economic catastrophes. By 2025 five of the G7 group of big rich countries will have a net-debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 100%, according to forecasts by the imf. Such debts may have been sustainable in the low-interest-rate era of the 2010s. But those days are long gone. This month the ten-year Treasury yield briefly hit 4.3%, its highest since before the global financial crisis of 2007-09.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Eating away”

From the September 2nd 2023 edition

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