Carmen Hofmann (eabh) and Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institute) talk about Sovereign Debt in the 21st century.
Trebesch argues that we see a continuous trend of debt crises without default, meaning that governments are less willing to default than in the previous centuries and therefore have established wider safety nets of bailouts and rescue lending.
This conversation circles around some of the most crucial questions of the post covid environment: Is there such thing as 'debt without drama' or is the worst yet to come? Can we find precedents in history for how to deal with current rising sovereign debt levels? Which role plays the rising finalisation of the economy, the increased dominance of litigation in finance and the rise of China? And who pays for these debt crises without default if creditors don't?