In a speech on Feb. 10, Lord Turner, who is the former head of the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority and currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, pointed to continually rising levels of private debt as a key culprit holding back the recovery of the global economy. Speaking at the Center for Financial Studies at Goethe University in Frankfurt, where he also is a senior fellow, Lord Turner noted that the world’s economic growth has been largely dependent on credit. The result, he said, is that many economies have become vulnerable to damaging debt deflation cycles, which inherently results in increased economic instability.
Since then, Lord Turner’s ideas have been circling the globe, from London to Beijing and back. Below is just a sample of the news stories addressing his comments. With such a timely and important perspective, it’s inevitable that the conversation Lord Turner has started will continue.
