Taken at face value, David Cameron’s warning this week about risks in the global economy sounds like it might be wonderfully prescient. Here’s the country’s economic chauffeur, carefully checking his instrument…
Eric Best, Jacksonville State University and Joel Best, University of Delaware
The US student loan system is unique in age, size, and scope. Since 1958, the US has had some form of federally sponsored student loan system. Since inception, college and borrowing have become much more…
The Financial Conduct Authority’s new controls on payday lenders are geared toward protecting borrowers from excessive charges, which is welcome news. From January of next year, the regulator will impose…
There’s growing pressure on Germany to spend more to support Europe – and for good reason. But it’s proving to be a hard sell to the country’s leaders. Germany’s budget is balanced and the government insists…
Sovereign debt is a crucial lubricant for growth, especially among emerging nations, and so it is equally crucial that we can ensure the interminable row over Argentina’s default is not repeated. Measures…
We are in a new phase of the post-crisis world. Growth is disappointing with Italy in recession, France close to it, and even Germany lagging. It is a useful reminder that recovery in a debt-overhang economy…
Another week, another proposal to deal with Argentina’s debt. The latest one, by the Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is to launch a voluntary debt swap where investors holding defaulted…
“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” according to Oscar Wilde. No more so than in the contemporary issue of debt. It seems that while we may have been born free, many of us will die financially…
In imploring the world to be less dependent on the US dollar for international transactions, French finance minister Michel Sapin is expressing a wish that many of the euro’s creators hoped would already…
Facebook’s efforts in 2012 to manipulate the emotions of its users for part of an academic study have left the kingpin social network struggling to explain its actions. Maybe part of their mistake was…
The Abbott government is about to unveil a new A$10 billion infrastructure package in its first budget. Apparently it is to be funded by a “special immediate measure” in the form of a levy imposed on high-income…
These days, if investors ever want a break from fretting over the euro zone or US jobs, they can always look east. China’s bubbling debt problem has become a source of genuine anxiety and a potential threat…
Debt. Dollar. Deficits. Three little words so close to the hearts of our contributors in a year dominated by a critical federal election, a waning mining boom and continuing international turbulence. The…
Household debt in the UK recently hit a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in September 2008. That was the month when Lehman Brothers collapsed, sparking off the global financial crisis…
Tony Abbott enters the last parliamentary fortnight highly vulnerable on that familiar issue of “trust” – and it is all his own doing. The Prime Minister today added to the ammunition the opposition has…
“We have among the lowest of budget deficits and debt to GDP of any other major economies in the developed world… If it’s so bad, Mr Abbott, why have we been given by the three ratings agencies a AAA credit…
“Mr Rudd can stand up and show us his chart and demonstrate that by comparison with some other countries, Australia’s debt and deficit position is not so bad. But it’s not what we’ve done, it’s where we’ve…
Britain is currently experiencing its longest and deepest economic slump in a century. But through new research we’re only just beginning to realise quite how dramatic the impact of this recession has…
The Federal Government’s new Farm Finance assistance package includes concessional loans to help farms restructure debt and invest in productivity. But this is a back-to-the-future response that carries…
Labor has said all options are on the table to address Australia’s structural deficit and falling tax revenues, following disclosure this week of a $12 billion revenue shortfall, just weeks from the federal…