Wednesday, August 12, 2026 Strategy, technology, media, and social systems

I Think

Sorin Adam Matei

Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.

Can stimulus packages lead to lost decades and ballooning debt?

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, GERMANY - JULY 17: Homare S...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Japan tried desperately to pump billions upon billions of yen into its economy during the 1990 to jump start an economy ailing after a terrible real estate bubble that popped at the end of the 1980s. Twenty years later, Japan has a public debt that is twice its GDP and a credit rating of AA (one step below the US).

Most indebted countries:

  1. Japan – 213 percent of GDP
  2. Greece – 157 percent
  3. Italy – 129 percent
  4. Iceland – 121 percent
  5. Ireland – 120 percent
  6. Portugal – 111 percent
  7. United States – 101 percent
  8. Belgium – 101 percent
  9. France – 97 percent
  10. United Kingdom – 89 percent

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