The Fiscal Crisis - Borrow Long - If You Can!

This is a related post to my recent blog on the scale of government borrowing and debt. The Debt Management Office is responsible for finding buyers for the new debt issued by the UK government and they have their hands full this year with the challenge of selling over £220bn worth of new securities. Edmund Conway has a fascinating blog piece here about the term structure of this debt and what is means for the cost of making the interest payments. This week the UK government issued new bonds that will not be due for repayment until 2060 when most of us will be long gone! A fifty year bond is perhaps the longest bond (gilt) to have been issued for many years. And it turns out that the average date to maturity for UK public sector debt is significantly higher than for most advanced economies.

“The UK’s debt market is peculiar. In the US, average length of the existing Treasury bonds was, at recent count, 4.7 years and falling. Because this is such a short maturity, it means the debt has to be rolled over far more often, and at every point the government runs the risk of setting in stone any changes in interest rates. In France, the average maturity is 7.1 years, in Italy 6.9 years, in Germany 6.35 and in Japan 5.7 years. In Britain, the weighted average maturity of government bonds is a whopping 14.2 years. Admittedly, as the IMF points out this is slightly lower in the wake of the crisis, but it is still significantly longer than any other major economy.”

More here

Evaluating the effect of Quantitative Easing - A Case Against? [12 Feb 2012]
Martin Wolf on Global Shocks [10 Feb 2012]
Trucks are the new way of measuring debt [1 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Growth and Development - Some Indicators [30 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow [24 Jan 2012]
France and Flexible Employment [22 Jan 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Processed Meat and Cancer Risk - Information Failure? [17 Jan 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Can a minimum wage create jobs? [16 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: France loses her AAA credit rating [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Frontier Markets - the New BRICS? [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Economics of Fiscal Deficit Reduction [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: UK Bond Yields Reach Record Lows [11 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Freakonomics [9 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Natural Disasters and their Economic Impact [7 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Exchange Rate Economics - Where next for the US Dollar? [31 Dec 2011]
2011 in Review - The US Economy [27 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
The Eurozone Crisis Explained (again!) [22 Dec 2011]
Economics of Deforestation [20 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - What is the value of life in Africa? [19 Nov 2011]
LSE Lecture: Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow [15 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Should the EU introduce a Tobin Tax? [14 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Asymmetric Information - Buying a Used Car [14 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Eurozone crisis - a selection of resources [12 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Australia lowers interest rate to 4.5% [1 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Should TNCs make full disclosure on factory wages? [30 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Drop Box and Freemium [18 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Skidelsky in Madrid [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monospony Power and Low Wages in Care Homes [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tube Drivers set to earn £50,000 a year [3 Oct 2011]
NMW: Classical real-wage unemployment [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Drink Driving and Government Intervention [26 Sep 2011]
Greek debt decision tree [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Greek Economy at Default’s Door [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Inflation in India [18 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Income and Wealth in the UK [12 Sep 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
Monetary Policy Roundtable [25 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
Global Economy: Increased risk of future shocks [28 Jun 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Ownership and Control in Modern Businesses [18 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Diseconomies of Scale [18 May 2011]
EU Economics: Comparing the UK with Europe [14 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
Electric car charging points ‘shortfall’ [11 May 2011]
Review of “Adapt” by Tim Harford [9 May 2011]
AS Micro: Offering heart drugs by default [5 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation in Markets [4 May 2011]
AS Macro: Updated presentation on monetary policy [4 May 2011]
A2 Macro: Chinese investment in the EU [3 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
Focus on Ireland’s Economy [12 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Back to Roubini - a Year On! [11 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Real Disposable Income [11 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: Euro Area on the Rocks? [11 Apr 2011]
UK Minimum Wage rises by 2.5% in October 2011 [8 Apr 2011]
EU Economics - Portugal Reaches for Bail Out [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Fiscal Austerity [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Aggregate Supply Shock [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Fiscal Deficit [3 Apr 2011]
Information Failures: Tesco and Second Hand Cars [3 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: Data Charts (2) [30 Mar 2011]
Pacific Peso Reaches 29 Year High! [30 Mar 2011]
Progress towards low carbon economic growth [18 Mar 2011]
Keeping Track of UK Macro Objectives [18 Mar 2011]
Focus on Spain [16 Mar 2011]
Focus on Japan - Human Catastrophe, Economic Risks [13 Mar 2011]
EU Economics: How far is the Eurozone away from being an OCA? [12 Mar 2011]
Dambisa Moyo - How the West was Lost [11 Mar 2011]
Ireland - Mass Unemployment and Shrinking GDP [10 Mar 2011]
The Cost of Credit - Mining the Card Charges [1 Mar 2011]
Information Failures: Health Warnings on Cigarette Packets [27 Feb 2011]
Information Failures: Ponzi Schemes [27 Feb 2011]
EU Economics - Life at the jagged edge of the Euro Zone [20 Feb 2011]
Combining monetary and fiscal policy to curb inflation in China [16 Feb 2011]
Challenges facing the London Economy [12 Feb 2011]
Shareholder activism at Thomas Cook [12 Feb 2011]
Migrants’ Transfers and the Balance of Payments [11 Feb 2011]

ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER

Join over 6,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u regular Economics Resource Email Newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops + loads of great ideas for teaching economics from our blog authors.