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...certain extent, mounting sovereign debt is a natural outcome of the recent recession. As in any downturn, tax revenues shrank but government spending increased to stimulate sagging economies. The result: budget deficits and more borrowing. Expensive banking-sector bailouts made the burden even heavier. That's not automatically dangerous. There is no particular level of debt that acts as a trip wire and tosses an economy into crisis. Different economies can bear different levels of government debt, depending on their ability - real or perceived - to finance it. While Greece's small and uncompetitive economy is struggling to stay afloat, Japan...
...That doesn't mean there's no downside. Supersized sovereign debt is likely to depress economic growth. Hefty debt payments lead to heftier taxes, which bite into consumer spending and corporate investment. Economists Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University found in a recent study that once a country's government-debt-to-GDP ratio passes 90%, growth declines by at least one percentage point a year. For industrialized economies that rarely expand more than 2% or 3% a year, that's a huge chunk. "We're coming at a point in which growth...
...deficit. Papandreou has already promised pay cuts for public employees and tax hikes, but his European counterparts are demanding an even stricter program. That presents a huge test to his regime. Government workers have already staged strikes to protest Papandreou's plans. So far, he's held firm. A recent poll showed that two-thirds of Greeks believe the Prime Minister's measures are necessary; only 41% think they go far enough. "The government has seen the problem and is trying to do something," says Helen Tourkogeorgou, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mother in Athens. "The crisis...
...Into the Wild Tigers breed easily - they are cats, after all - and some 5,000 are kept on farms across China. The recent SFA directive pledged to better regulate these farms, but not to shut them down. This makes a mockery of China's avowed concern for tigers, say many conservationists. The farms ostensibly make their money from tourists, although some illegally sell tiger meat and parts. How can the same SFA officials who plan to save the South China tigers ignore the fate of thousands of their farm-raised cousins? The authorities argue that if public demand...
Where have all the charity songs gone? In recent years, that staple of the mid-1980s--the all-star benefit tune--has become a pop rarity. But now, 25 years after "We Are the World" raised $63 million for African famine relief, a new generation of musicians has rerecorded the anthem, with proceeds going to victims of Haiti's recent earthquake...