How serious is Italy’s public indebtedness? A view from outside
Some thirty years ago, the American economist Charles Schultze (former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and director of the Budget Bureau) addressed a question in reference to the U.S. budget deficit in terms of a metaphor: Is it a wolf at the door, a domestic pussycat, or termites in the basement?[1] In retrospect, the question, raised at a time when the ratio of U.S. general government debt to economic output stood at less than 60 per cent, seems rather trivial in the light of a debt ratio nearly twice as high today and rising.