Introducing the Global Debt and Growth Series

We are in the fifth year of confronting the effects of a liquidity and debt crisis that brought the global economy to a standstill in 2008. There is widespread consensus that debt crises create long-term challenges for economic growth. While the crisis initially slowed growth in mature economies, it is now affecting traditionally fast-growing, emerging markets as well through slowing exports and a generally weaker global economy. In that sense, this time (truly) is different: the current crisis, which has its roots in the asset bubble/housing crisis in the United States, has pervaded virtually every corner of the global economy.