In Europe, Mario Draghi, the head of the ECB, is flooding banks with a $1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) at 1% in an effort to recapitalize them and maintain liquidity. Many banks are using this money to buy sovereign debt that pays high rates of interest. Unfortunately, as was the case here with QE1 and QE2, the banks are not lending the money, resulting in a more severe European recession.
Tag Archives: Sovereign debt
Not all Debt is Equal
While being in debt is not so great for a household–because interest payments leave the household and go to a bank, or credit card company, debt can be tolerable for a country. If the debt is largely internally held (Japan), interest payments go from the government to domestic creditor households. The problem is that to pay the interest, governments must either raise taxes or print money; both of which have drawbacks.