They could contrast their high growth rates with Europe s high levels of debt.

High levels of sovereign debt, together with the behavior of parts of the financial sector, have amplified the crisis in the eurozone and raised important issues of confidence that now require a systemic answer.

Private and public debt levels are high and possibly unsustainable.

Faced with high inflation, Thatcher backed a monetarist approach that supported high interest rates and succeeded in sharply reducing inflation.

But domestic savings remain low in the face of persistently high levels of public debt.

Worse still, high levels of public debt, like high taxes, cause serious problems for economic performance.

Most Americans are, after all, preoccupied with the US economy s sluggish growth and persistent high unemployment.

Many African countries have used the past decade to put in place sound and sustainable economic policies that have delivered robust growth and low inflation. Together with debt relief, these policies have resulted in low levels of public debt, relatively sound financial systems, and most important rising living standards.

And large deficits and high debt levels decrease the prospects for a long boom.

The country is also burdened with high levels of debt and limited resources.

Fiscal deficits must be cut to reduce debt levels.

That is why countries build up debt levels that put them in the danger zone.

In Europe, officials are also turning to stealth taxes, particularly financial repression, to resolve high public debt overhangs.

Hence the impasse, with the eurozone becoming mired in a vicious circle of high debt and economic austerity.

This is less radical than the method adopted by Argentina, where high levels of inflation are both a historical nightmare and a current challenge.

The risk, therefore, is that product markets will tighten while there is still high measured unemployment.

In order to sustain high performance levels, sufficient time and resources must be secured on a more permanent basis.

In Europe, the market for Greek debt has frozen, and interest rate spreads between Irish and German euro denominated debt recently reached alarming levels.

The main reason for the lag is not simply low demand or large debts.

And storm surges now ride on these elevated sea levels, amplifying flooding losses where they strike.

The average high debt episodes since 1800 last 23 years and are associated with a growth rate more than one percentage point below the rate typical for periods of lower debt levels.

This means extending the maturity dates of debts and reducing the interest rate on the new debt to levels much lower than currently unsustainable market rates.

Moldova is deeply in debt, unemployment is high, and its once well regarded wine industry is in decline.

These developments, together with the costly war against Yohannes IV of Ethiopia, left Egypt in deepdebt to the European powers.

Higher prices fuel higher growth in these countries, which, accompanied by a population boom, leads to higher domestic energy consumption.

Currently, they are wrestling with widening sovereign debt problems and high unemployment.

A combination of these and other measures would help Europe to sustain its high living standards in the coming decades.

The stock imbalances include large and rising public and private debt as a share of GDP.

A long term alternative requires some capacity to write down debt where it has reached excessive levels.

Five years on, public, private, and external debt are at record levels in many countries.

In Brazil, the consequences of those crises were an inflationary spiral and an increase in foreign debt to stratospheric levels.

Until recently, the bond markets treated all euro sovereign debts as virtually equal, not raising interest rates on high debt countries until the possibility of default became clear.

Until November, Nicaragua was on the way to developing a healthy electoral tradition, backed by high levels of participation.

We are as capable as before of affording for everyone a high standard of life high, I mean, compared with, say, 20 years ago and will soon learn to afford a standard higher still.

Rising spreads in Spain and Italy show that contagion is already occurring, even in the absence of an official decision to write down Greek debt.

Such profligacy has led to levels of debt that will become unsustainable if we do not act.

That is, after a quarter century of high debt, income can be 25 lower than it would have been at normal growth rates.

High growth and financial stability in emerging economies are helping to facilitate the massive adjustment facing industrial countries.

While there is a legitimate debate about whether this implies that high debt causes slow growth, Krugman turned to questioning their motives.

The document is filled with nonsense, such as the fatuous claim that high taxes and over regulation explain America s high unemployment.

America and Europe will keep their high living standards only by basing their competitiveness on advanced skills, cutting edge technologies, and modern infrastructure.

But the debate about austerity and the cost of high public debt levels misses a key point Public debt owed to foreigners is different from debt owed to residents.

Rising unemployment compounded the loss of household wealth, throwing families into deep economic peril and leading to further cutbacks in consumer spending.

Private leverage levels, as much as the public debt burden, must therefore be treated as crucial economic variables.

Reinhart and Rogoff s research broadly shows that GDP growth is slower at high levels of public debt.