Debt: The eye of the storm – the 24th Geneva Report on the World Economy by Laurence Boone, Joachim Fels, Òscar Jordà, Moritz Schularick, Alan M. Taylor published by VOXEU (2/2022).
The Covid-19 pandemic will go down as one of the most severe human, economic, and financial events in the history of the modern world. Nations have accumulated public debt levels not seen since WWII in their efforts to tackle the health crisis and mitigate the ensuing economic dislocation. The private sector has also experienced a run-up in debt, but unlike the Great Mortgaging of the 2000s, this time led by the corporate sector. The 24th Geneva Report on the World Economy explores the geo-economic risks entailed by these historic levels of overall debt and concludes that while debt should not be ignored, neither should it be feared.
