Strategies to Get Out of the Fiscal Crisis

Abstract

The Great Recession started, as a financial crisis, in the United States, connected with bad investments in the housing market. Soon it changed into an economic recession, and, finally, morphed into a fiscal crisis in an increasing number of countries. In spite of growing worries, so far it has not affected the cost of borrowing for the American government, a cost that has remained surprisingly low in spite of some recent increases in rates. In Europe the crisis had more varied origins and it created difficulties both for countries and for the euro, raising questions whether the euro, as the common currency in the European Monetary Union, would survive the crisis.