ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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If I have to take out loans and borrow against the equity in my house just to cover normal expenses you could call that sustainable because I am doing it, but it can only last as long as my credit rating. Since this cannot last, I would say unsustainable is a better word.
I think the blogger may be referring to crossing the arbitrary, but important, milestone of 90% debt-to-GDP ratio. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff write of this threshold: "Above 90 percent, median growth rates fall by one percent, and average growth falls considerably more. We find that the threshold for public debt is similar in advanced and emerging economies…"
I think the author is commenting on a debt spiral: chronic deficits will balloon the public's debt, reducing growth and tax revenues, increasing interest payments - causing further debt, which is unsustainable.