The sovereign debt crisis is well known.

The financial and economic crisis is morphing into a sovereign debt crisis in advanced countries.

But the stimulus measures transformed a banking crisis into a fiscal and sovereign debt crisis.

So governments bailed out banks and economies, producing a sovereign debt crisis.

With the onset of the European sovereign debt crisis in 2010, banks appetite for public debt fell again.

And the evidence confirms that the euro crisis is not really about sovereign debt, but about foreign debt.

ROME The euro contagion triggered by Greece s sovereign debt crisis has now infected Italy.

Policy asymmetry is greatest for the countries most acutely affected by the sovereign debt crisis.

We cannot foster sustainable growth or preempt a sovereign debt crisis in Europe (or anywhere else) by piling up more debt.

Otherwise, China might already have experienced its own localized sovereign debt crisis and, perhaps, hyper inflation.

The IMF s heavy engagement in resolving Europe s sovereign debt crisis adds another element of political complexity.

Of course, some believe that the Fed s mass purchases of US debt poses an even bigger risk than Europe s sovereign debt crisis.

Until this summer, the sovereign debt crisis was confined to three small countries Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Europe s sovereign debt crisis is forcing tough choices, and the IMF s director must work on several contingency plans.

After the Argentine crisis, President George W. Bush s administration vetoed proposals to create a mechanism for sovereign debt restructuring.

Events in Cyprus have exposed two other dimensions to the clashes over Europe s dual sovereign debt and banking crisis.

BERKELEY Fiscal profligacy did not cause the sovereign debt crisis engulfing Europe, and fiscal austerity will not solve it.

So much for the sovereign debt crisis, which, given its national, regional, and global impact, has been particularly well covered.

Now, given the profound sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone periphery, government defaults threaten to take down the big banks.

Then came the eurozone s sovereign debt crisis, with its roots in lax government finance in some (mostly southern European) countries.

Europe has slipped back into recession without ever really recovering from the financial sovereign debt crisis that began in 2008.

Sovereign Debt at Square One

WASHINGTON, DC The eurozone crisis unfolded primarily as a sovereign debt crisis mostly on its southern periphery, with interest rates on sovereign bonds at times reaching 6 7 for Italy and Spain, and even higher for other countries.

Just as the soft landing in early 2009 occurred in the aftermath of a horrific American made crisis, this latest one followed the European sovereign debt crisis.

But the proposition that the ongoing sovereign debt crisis on Europe s periphery is a reason to appoint a European is wrong.

But the problem with austerity in the eurozone is more fundamental policymakers are attempting to address a sovereign debt crisis, though the real problem is a banking crisis.

How to Default on Sovereign Debt

Sovereign debt no longer looks stable.

Sovereign debt restructurings with private creditors

Investors were not worried about default risk on Spanish or Irish sovereign debt, or about Italy s chronically large sovereign debt.

There are three basic approaches to resolving the banking crisis (which means resolving the fiscal adjustment, sovereign debt, and euro issues simultaneously).

But MEPs then failed to propose a plausible female alternative, leaving the ECB understaffed for weeks during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

If she had added that this is a crisis of both sovereign and bank debt, she would have been even more right.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel likes to emphasize, rightly, that one should not speak of a euro crisis, but of a debt crisis. If she had added that this is a crisis of both sovereign and bank debt, she would have been even more right.

A New Approach to Eurozone Sovereign Debt

The Root of All Sovereign Debt Crises

Nevertheless, the crisis should abate somewhat, because the most risk averse institutions have by now sold their holdings of peripheral countries sovereign debt.

Companies on both sides of the Atlantic could be thrown off course by the US fiscal cliff and the EU sovereign debt crisis.

PRINCETON The European Union s sovereign debt crisis constitutes a fundamental threat not only to the euro, but also to democracy and public accountability.

In a worst case scenario, Europe s sovereign debt crisis could cause the eurozone to implode, with immediate negative effects for the EU itself.

With the sovereign debt crisis pushing French banks and thus the French economy to the wall, something will have to give, and soon.

And, because eurozone banks hold a substantial part of their assets in the form of eurozone sovereign bonds, the sovereign debt crisis became a potential banking crisis, worsened by banks other losses, owing, for example, to the collapse of housing prices in Spain.

On the other hand, if policymakers maintain the stimulus for too long, runaway fiscal deficits may lead to a sovereign debt crisis (markets are already punishing fiscally undisciplined countries with larger sovereign spreads).

In countries that borrow in their own currency and can monetize the public debt, a sovereign debt crisis is unlikely, but monetization of fiscal deficits can eventually lead to high inflation.

The drama of the European sovereign debt crisis with Greece in its center is coming to a head, as politicians desperately seek options to disentangle the European Union from mounting debt.