15
Dec
2014
Net Foreign Debt Bask
A Keynesian refrain that has arisen in the last few years is that a country that issues its own currency can only have a debt crisis if its institutions have a lot of net debt denominated in foreign currencies. For example, today Paul Krugman says Russia is in trouble for just this reason (even though the naive Krugmanite might have thought an attack by speculators would boost Russian GDP).
Does anyone know where I can find a ranking of countries (or at least major countries) by this criterion? It’s easy to find rankings of “External Debt” but I’m concerned that that’s counting (say) dollar-denominated debt that U.S. institutions owe to non-Americans.
“Venezuela with nukes” is a bit funny. So far as I can see, the currency vigilantes are undoubtedly boosting Russian NGDP!
Here’s a comparison:
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_kd#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_kd&scale_y=log&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=country:VEN:RUS:PRT:GRC&ifdim=region&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&ind=false