Structural Macroeconomic Debt Overhang
This occurs if there is a latent output gap or underemployment in an economy, which is bridged repeatedly by credit creation, the build up of which results in a debt overhang. Conversely, you may deduce from a long term tendency to build up debt the existence of latent structural underemployment. Typically private lenders (banks) boldly venture forth: whether they lend to developing countries like in the 1970s, covered by the expected stream of high future coupons, or excessive consumption of their own folk covered by higher paper valuations of assets, it is the same basic story. In the eventual shakeout (due yet again, in the last instance, to latent underemployment), the debt overhang is preserved by substituting public debt for private debt (bailouts), and—keeps growing.
Read more about this topic: Debt Overhang
Famous quotes containing the words structural and/or debt:
“The reader uses his eyes as well as or instead of his ears and is in every way encouraged to take a more abstract view of the language he sees. The written or printed sentence lends itself to structural analysis as the spoken does not because the reader’s eye can play back and forth over the words, giving him time to divide the sentence into visually appreciated parts and to reflect on the grammatical function.”
—J. David Bolter (b. 1951)
“This is the debt I pay
Just for one riotous day,”
—Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906)