News
CNN Money | Senior citizens struggle with mounting debt
It used to be that many Americans entered retirement having paid off their mortgages and most of their other debts. This should have been senior citizens' Golden Years.
Bloomberg | Worse-Than-Cyprus Debt Load Means Caribbean Defaults to Moody’s
Three bond restructurings totaling about $9.7 billion in the Caribbean this year are failing to ignite economic growth and may not help the region avoid more defaults, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
CNN Money | 7 million students brace for surge in loan rates
On July 1, the interest rates on student loans subsidized by Uncle Sam will most likely double to 6.8%.
WSJ | Economists Brawl Over Austerity, Debt
Harvard economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart over the weekend accused Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman of "spectacularly uncivil behavior" and of inaccurately alleging that they refused to share data supporting their work linking heavy debt levels to subsequent slow economic growth.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Market Watch | Why the debt-ceiling fight is low key — for now
When it comes to raising the U.S. debt ceiling, 2013 is not 2011. At least not yet.
Washignton Times | Pricking the college loan bubble
College loans remain a cruel charade. In the name of making higher education “more affordable,” students are conned into borrowing far more than they can repay in return for a university degree.
NBER | Borrowing High vs. Borrowing Higher: Sources and Consequences of Dispersion in Individual Borrowing Costs
We document cross-individual variation in U.S. credit card borrowing costs (APRs) that is large enough to explain substantial differences in household saving rates.
Blogs
Economist | Debt, growth and competing risks
Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have revived the debate over their work on debt and growth with an open letter to Paul Krugman. They accuse him of incivility, factual misstatements and general wrongness. On the first, he's guilty (but so are many economists, usefully). On the second, he is guilty of a lesser charge
