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Telegraph: US lurching towards 'debt explosion' with long-term interest rates on course to double

The US economy is lurching towards crisis with long-term interest rates on course to double, crippling the country's ability to pay its debts and potentially plunging it into another recession, according to a study by the US's own central bank

n a 2003 paper, Thomas Laubach, the US Federal Reserve's senior economist, calculated the impact on long-term interest rates of rising fiscal deficits and soaring national debt. Applying his assumptions to the recent spike in the US fiscal deficit and national debt, long-term interests rates will double from their current 3.5pc.

The impact would be devastating by making it punitively expensive to finance national borrowings and leading to what Tim Congdon, founder of Lombard Street Research, called a "debt explosion". Mr Laubach's study has implications for the UK, too, as public debt is soaring. A US crisis would have implications for the rest of the world, in any case.

[Torygraph Alert]

by Sassafras on Mon Jul 6th, 2009 at 12:43:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
3.5% is punitively expensive???

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds; a man of deeds and not of words is like a garden full of turds — Anonymous
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jul 6th, 2009 at 01:04:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Staggering isn't it ? I believe their gas prices are truly horrid as well.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Jul 6th, 2009 at 05:15:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
double from their current 3.5pc

Twice 3,5% makes 7%.

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Mon Jul 6th, 2009 at 05:46:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Right, okay.

I'll believe that the US can have 7% long-term interest rates when I see it.

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds; a man of deeds and not of words is like a garden full of turds — Anonymous

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 7th, 2009 at 05:40:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They're not saying that 3.5 % is punitively expensive, but that 7 % is.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Mon Jul 6th, 2009 at 05:48:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
well, it would double the yearly interest bill from roughly 350 billion to 700 billion. A year ago, 350 billion was pretty close to what the largest the budget deficit had ever been...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Tue Jul 7th, 2009 at 05:38:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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