Political Economy of Government Debt: A Public Choice Perspective

Many scholars believe that public debt is an oxymoron because "we owe it to ourselves." By taking a public choice perspective, however, we can see that this is patently false. In this lecture, we will explore the meaning of public debt, how it is created, how it is discharged, the myriad forms in which it can take, and the pernicious problems of persistent public debt.