INTRODUCTION
The Sovereign debt crisis in Europe spread mostly across eurozone periphery countries of the Mediterranean and Ireland right after the explosion of the housing bubble in the US, which lead to the subprime crisis. While there was a feeling that Europe would not be hit by the financial crisis, soon markets started to worry about the sustainability of eurozone countries’ debt. These worries were amplified by different factors depending on the country: for Greece it was their constantly growing debt, for Spain it was the burst of the housing market on which its economy was heavily dependant, and in Ireland it was both the burst of the real estate bubble and the global financial crisis. These three examples bring us already some hints about what were the principal causes of the Sovereign debt crisis in the Euro area. This essay will look at some of those causes in order to discuss later what possible measures should be undertaken.
I. The main determinants of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe
A) Current account imbalances in the euro area.
One of the main causes of the Sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone has been the large current account imbalances. To simplify it, in the Eurozone we had countries such as Germany and the Netherlands running large current account surpluses and then, southern economies such as Greece and Portugal, running large current account deficits. Running this surpluses and deficits is not bad per se, they become dangerous when they become very large since those countries economies could be vulnerable to economic shocks as it happened with the Subprime crisis and later the global financial crisis. In fact, in such external shocks, a country with huge deficits could find itself short of borrowin...
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...act the huge levels of debt in the periphery countries combined with the investment in the housing sector which was hardly hit by the subprime crisis in the US. Therefore, the financial integration and the trends feeding the imbalances in Europe such as government spending and investment in non-tradable sectors rather than increasing the competitiveness of their exports brought and amplified market uncertainty about the sustainability of periphery countries debt. Solutions to this would be a much stronger financial, fiscal and macroeconomic surveillance mechanisms along with common financial rules for the banking sector. However, the most important step as to avoid such divergences among euro zone countries would be to keep a certain level of imbalances but with a Fiscal Union so as to mutualize problems, and apply a market for Eurobonds as a way of burden sharing.
Sovereign lending, throughout history, has been marked by occurrences of partial default and repudiation by governments of all kind; from medieval princes to dictators to democratic regimes. In the 1970s lending to lesser-developed countries led to the rescheduling and partial defaults in the 1980s. Even the sustainability of the debt of nations such as Belgium, Canada, Italy and even the United States is not free from suspect.
The national debt surfaced after the revolution when the United States government had to borrow funds from the French government and from the Dutch bankers. By 1790, the U.S. government accumulated millions in debt, but no one knew precisely how much. The Constitution mandated that the new government take over the debts of the old government under the Articles of Confederation.
As of today America’s national debt is 18 trillion dollars and approximately 5 trillion of that is held by foreign countries including China and Japan. In the last few years we seem to hear more about balancing the country’s budget and politicians raising the debt ceiling so we can pay on this debt. How have we gotten into such an overwhelming and complicated problem with our nation’s money? Ironically the same can be said for our individual household debt as well as making the same mistakes and trying to find creative ways to be accountable to our financial responsibilities. Teaching the basics of personal finance n our schools can culturally change our financial practices, leading to a more financially literate public and a stronger, more stable, America. If the younger generations can become more financially savvy, then there is an opportunity for our nation as a whole to become less dependent on debt to survive.
Every day in New York City, hundreds of people walk past a huge digital billboard with giant numbers across its face. Each person who walks past this billboard sees a slightly different arrangement of numbers, growing larger every second. This board is the National Debt Clock, representing the over 14 trillion dollars currently owed by the United States. While some people claim that the national debt is caused by the falling economy, most maintain that the debt itself causes the poor economy (Budget Deficits 2007). Rising debt leads to higher interest and investment rates, and cuts into our national savings. Ignoring the national debt leaves the major burden of paying it off to later generations, while meanwhile allowing our country’s economy to further drop and our dependency on other nations to rise.
What caused the Great Recession that lasted from December 2007 to June 2009 in the United States? The United States a country with abundance of resources from jobs, education, money and power went from one day of economic balance to the next suffering major dimensions crisis. According to the Economic Policy Institute, it all began in 2007 from the credit crisis, which resulted in an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble (n.d.). This said by Economist analysts to attributed to the collapse in the United States. Even today, strong debates continue over major issues caused by the Great Recession in part over the accommodative federal monetary and fiscal policy (Economic Policy Institute, 2013). The Great Recession of 2007 – 2009 enlarges the longest financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929 – 1932 that damaged the economy.
On the Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, there is a national debt clock that shows the amount of United States national debt. The clock was first installed in 1989, and can show up to ten trillion dollars. It ran out of digits in October 2008 when the sum of debt exceeded the amount. A new clock with two extra digits is going to be installed (Izzo 2 ).
The Oka Crisis was a land dispute in Canada between the town of Oka, Quebec and the Mohawk community of Kanesatake. In 1989, the mayor of Oka, Jean Ouellette, had announced that the remainder of pine trees near Kanesatake would be removed to add an additional nine holes onto a private, members-only golf course club and the development of sixty condominiums. Three years earlier, the Mohawk people filed a land claim for that area, but had been rejected because it failed to meet key criteria. The development plan was the start of the crisis because that land is a sacred grove and burial ground to the Mohawk people. This resulted in a protest by the Mohawks against the court decision to allow the start of the golf course construction.
The financial crisis of 2007-8 is considered the worst financial crash since The Great Depression of the 1930s. It began on the 9th of August 2007, with BNP Paribas admitting they had no real way of valuing complex assets, which will be expanded on later. Bloomberg estimated the total cost to the American economy to be $12.8trillion; a difficult figure to calculate considering the crisis affected home values, pensions, corporate earnings, losses in share markets, reduced consumer spending, and of course job losses.
In economics, a recession occurs when there is a slowdown in the spending of goods and services in the market. A recession causes a drop in employment, GDP growth, investment, as well as societal well-being. All recessions are caused by a specific cause, but the Great Recession of 2007-2009 was caused by a crash in the housing market. This crash was triggered by a steep decline in housing prices. All of a sudden, people bought houses because there was an excessive amount of money in the economy and they thought the price of houses would only increase. (Amadeo, 2012). There was a financial frenzy as the growing desire for homes expanded. People held a lot of faith in the economy and began spending irrationally on houses that they couldn’t afford. This led to overvalued estate and unsustainable mortgage debt. (McConnell, Brue, Flynn, 2012).
This paper is mainly focusing on the historical background and causes of debt crisis in late 1970s and 1980s.
I. Introduction. How to use a symposia? The "subprime crisis" was one of the most significant financial events since the Great Depression and definitely left a mark upon the country as we remain on a steady path towards recovering fully. The financial crisis of 2008, became a defining moment within the infrastructure of the US financial system and its need for restructuring. One of the main moments that alerted the global economy of our declining state was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, September 14, 2008 and after this the economy began spreading as companies and individuals were struggling to find a way around this crisis.
Historically, financial crises have been followed by a wave of governments defaulting on their debt obligations. The global economic history has experienced sovereign debt crisis such as in Latin America during the 80s, in Russia at the end of the 90s and in Argentina in the beginning of the 00s. The European debt crisis is the most significant of its kind that the economic world was seen started from 2010. Financial crises tend to lead to, or exacerbate, sharp economic downturns, low government revenues, widening government deficits, and high levels of debt, pushing many governments into default. Greece is currently facing such a sovereign debt crisis and Europe’s most indebted country despite its surplus in the early 2000s. Greece accumulated high levels of debt during the decade before the crisis, when the capital markets were highly liquid. As the crisis has unfolded, and capital markets have become more illiquid, Greece may no longer be able to roll over its maturing debt obligations. Investment by both the private and the public sectors has ground to a halt. Public sector debt has increased substantially as the state had to rely on official assistance to payroll expenses, fiscal deficit and fund social payments.
The Greek economy has seen a large collapse following the recent worldwide recession. The European Union has expressed concerns for the impact that Greece’s economic collapse will negatively affect other member nations. Greece and the European Union are working to reduce the Greek deficit and to contain the economic crisis to Greece.
Everyone has their own political leaning and that leaning comes from one’s opinion about the Government. Peoples’ opinions are formed by what the parties say they will and will not do, the amounts they want spend and what they want to save. In macroeconomic terms, what the government spends is known as fiscal policy. Fiscal policy is the use of taxation and government spending for the purposes of stimulating or slowing down growth in an economy. Fiscal policy can be used for expansionary reasons, which is aimed at growing the economy and increasing employment, or contractionary which is intended to slow the growth of an economy. Expansionary fiscal policy features increased government spending and decreases in the tax rates as where contractionary policy focuses on lowering government spending and increasing tax rates. It must be understood that fiscal policy is meant to help the economy, although some negative results may arise.
Since the turn of the millennium Ireland witnessed unprecedented growth, in stark contrast to the economic hardship of the 1900’s. Ireland became one of the most prosperous countries in Europe during the 2000’s. Times were good for Ireland as unemployment was low, growth and GDP was growing year on year and inflation was constant. In 2008, all this was to change and Ireland witnessed the worst recession in its history. The banking crisis, the construction sector and poor regulation were the major contributors in the Irish recession. A fiscal crisis erupted, NAMA (National Assets Management Agency) was established to secure bad loans in banks, and a EU/IMF bailout was agreed which burdened Irish taxpayers. I will explore the causes and consequences of the crisis in this essay.