This continued until 2007 2008, when Spanish debt levels became excessive.

Those who fear excessive public debt are the banks that hold it.

Excessive surpluses in some countries and excessive debt in others, fueled by undervalued currencies and runaway government spending, respectively, must be curbed.

But the problem of excessive government debt is not confined to the EU.

Massive speculation and borrowing led to excessive debt burdens and ultimately, to default.

If high national debt is associated with slow economic growth, is it because excessive debt impedes growth, or because slow growth causes countries to accumulate more debt?

The crisis originates with excessive debt accumulation, which makes economies vulnerable to crises of confidence.

Some sort of Brady bond to reduce and extend excessive sovereign debt will be necessary.

In Iraq, excessive external debt levels and massive war reparations are major obstacles to reconstruction.

That left individual eurozone members exposed to brutal pressure by financial markets at a time when excessive private debt was turned into unsustainable public debt.

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

Financial markets responded by demanding much higher rates on the bonds of countries with high government debt ratios and banking systems weakened by excessive mortgage debt.

This time was not different. Massive speculation and borrowing led to excessive debt burdens and ultimately, to default.

Recent history, particularly the excessive accumulation of private and public debt, suggests that we have not acquired it.

Accumulating excessive debt usually entails moving some part of domestic aggregate demand forward in time, so the exit from that debt must include more savings and diminished demand.

In an ideal world, Europe would deal with its excessive debt burdens through a restructuring of Greek, Irish, and Portuguese liabilities, as well as municipal and bank debt in Spain.

Unfortunately, it is hard to get clear cut evidence of causality. If high national debt is associated with slow economic growth, is it because excessive debt impedes growth, or because slow growth causes countries to accumulate more debt?

Moreover, France s rapidly worsening foreign trade deficit is boosting already excessive debt levels, while output is falling and unemployment is rising.

That left individual eurozone members exposed to brutal pressure by financial markets at a time when excessive private debt was turned into unsustainable public debt. Suddenly, the eurozone had become a straightjacket.

On the other side are those who call for the creditors who triggered the excessive debt to be punished for their imprudence.

These include increased unemployment, the reduction of excessive debt burdens and therefore of credit driven spending, the restructuring of sectors that had expanded in response to excessive spending, and the curtailment of lending by over extended financial institutions.

It could do so because its economy, apart from its excessive debt burden following the collapse of an asset bubble, was basically sound.

What is now required to resolve the technical issue is some mechanism for assuming existing debt and preventing excessive borrowing in the future.

Excessive centralization and harmonization are decimating the subsidiarity and competition needed to drive Europe s economies, as the socialization of debt undermines weaker economies accountability.

It is now too late to turn back the clock and suddenly force banks to get rid of their excessive holdings of public debt.

The UK, Spain, and Ireland are experiencing similar developments, with housing bubbles deflating and excessive consumer debt undercutting retail sales, thus leading to recession.

These subsidies are dangerous they encourage excessive risk taking and very high leverage meaning a lot of debt relative to equity for each bank and far too much debt relative to the economy as a whole.

I think it's excessive Internet use in general, excessive video gaming, excessive new access to pornography.

Excessive emphasis on fiscal rigor, unaccompanied by measures to stimulate growth, has reinforced recessionary trends, placing additional strain on national budgets and debt GDP ratios.

So, with policymakers and pundits railing against sustained oversized trade imbalances, we need to recognize that the real problems are rooted in excessive concentrations of debt.

Crises like those we have recently endured were initially driven by excessive debt and leverage among private sector agents households, banks and financial institutions, corporate firms.

When the bubbles burst, households understandably became fixated on balance sheet repair namely, paying down debt and rebuilding personal savings, rather than resuming excessive spending habits.

The impact of slowing global trade is most apparent for Germany, which was not burdened with excessive household or corporate debt, and enjoyed a favorable fiscal position.

Second, while monetary policy has limited impact when the problems are excessive debt and insolvency rather than illiquidity, credit easing, rather than just quantitative easing, can be helpful.

Larger firms even those with large debt problems can refinance their excessive liabilities in court or out of court but an unprecedented number of small businesses are going bankrupt.

These countries do not have the excessive budget deficits that many European countries ran up during the last expansion and that are culminating in today s mismanaged sovereign debt crisis.

Excessive debt burdens continued to be a great hindrance to the growth potential of many such countries, especially in the light of escalating oil prices and declining commodity prices.

Excessive lead times

A long term alternative requires some capacity to write down debt where it has reached excessive levels. But it is also necessary to establish an iron clad guarantee of some part of the outstanding debt, in order to remove fear of a complete write down.

But cheap credit promotes bad investment and excessive debt, which borrowers often are unable to repay. More fundamentally, investment is a bet that cannot pay off if growth is structurally depressed.

LONDON The Great Recession of 2008 2009 was triggered by excessive debt accumulation and leverage on the part of households, financial institutions, and even the corporate sector in many advanced economies.

But there is a contrary moral attitude, the essence of which is that, whereas excessive debt is to be deplored, the blame for it lies with the lender, not the borrower.

These asset bubbles were inflated by lax lending standards and an excessive willingness to borrow, which seemed similar to the Greek government s willingness to take on debt to pay lavish pensions.

It is not clear if deflation can be beaten with monetary policy excessive fiscal stimulus and deferred austerity may make the debt unsustainable and the structural reform components of Abenomics are vague.

This enabled a consumption binge, which meant that debt was created without a corresponding asset, and encouraged excessive investment in real estate, resulting in excess capacity that will take years to eliminate.