Last year, credit rating agencies were arguing for either a downgrade or a negative outlook on India debt, citing policy paralysis in New Delhi.
The looming sequestration and the debate over the debt ceiling extend policy uncertainty and, at least for the early part of 2013, are likely to keep business leaders reluctant to deploy capital in a meaningful way.
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"Britain needs low interest rates, and we can only keep interest rates low if we have a credible policy on debt, " Mr Cameron said.
Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, argues that fiscal thrift will increase private spending by reducing uncertainty about government tax policy and debt.
The Bank of England could impose checks and balances on Scottish fiscal policy, debt, deficit, taxation and public spending, which "could amount to a loss of fiscal autonomy" for Scotland.
But she said that, despite progress on fiscal policy, government debt would hit 108 per cent of gross domestic product this year.
Putin essentially said that the country would take gradual steps to reform, and would stick to its current conservative fiscal policy of low debt.
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In 2007, when studying fiscal policy, national debt, deficits, and entitlements, a student asked why solutions are not sought if we know that we have structural problems.
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Congress should let the Fed issue its own debt, which would give it scope to tighten monetary policy without disorderly sales of the illiquid private debt it has taken on.
Yet the economy, and the stock market, faces important obstacles, including a flare up of the European sovereign debt crisis, tight fiscal policy, and the potential of further gridlock in Washington.
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Both would probably admit that the Bank of England's decision to buy about a third of the total stock of public debt as part of its policy of quantitative easing didn't hurt.
Stocks slumped Tuesday on fears of tighter monetary policy by China and debt issues in Ireland.
The Fed conducts incremental unconventional monetary policy via purchasing of debt, while the President can release government-controlled barrels of oil onto the market.
It's when countries try to use their policy to inflate foreign debt away or spur employment growth, he argues, that they tend to go awry.
Today, there is uncertainty about regulatory policy, uncertainty about monetary policy, uncertainty about foreign policy and, most significantly, uncertainty about U.S. fiscal policy and the national debt.
The Bank and the Fund also believe that the conditions they place on debt relief cajole countries into beneficial policy reforms, such as putting a higher priority on health and education.
The ability of stocks to hold onto their gains despite fears about U.S. monetary policy and European sovereign debt problems is helping individual investors remain upbeat about the short-term prospects for stocks.
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Announcing its revised growth forecasts, the European Commission predicted that if there was no change in political policy, Italian public debt would remain unchanged at 120.5% of GDP next year, before falling to 118.7% in 2013.
Fair of Yale University estimates that without big changes in policy, the national debt will rise to 75% of GDP by 2020 from 50% now, while interest expense will rise to 4.3% of GDP (see chart, below).
And it is why no policy adjustment, short of debt cancellation or hyperinflation, will make any damned difference.
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But Communities and Local Government Minister Grant Shapps rejected the opposition's charges and accused Labour of leaving the coalition a "toxic legacy of debt" under their "scorched earth policy".
Mindful of its large public debt, Italy refrained from using fiscal policy as an active tool to stimulate the economy, and has managed to keep its budget deficit below the euro-area average (see left-hand chart).
Even if inflation could be created, would it reduce the real government debt, the presumed purpose of such a policy?
The latter collateral will come into play only where the cash surrender value of the policy is insufficient to meet the debt obligation.
At the same time, government debt has exploded to a size that makes fiscal policy less potent.
Suddenly there is the glimpse of a looser monetary policy, of targets relaxed and of debt being mutualised.
There is certainly a need to reappraise policy as the euro zone's debt crisis enters a perilous new phase.
In continental Europe, the record suggests that activist fiscal policy brought permanently higher public spending and debt a point Mr Trichet has been quick to note.
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