Researchers Finally Replicated Reinhart-Rogoff, and There Are Serious Problems
Stepping back for a moment, this thorough debunking of Reinhart and Rogoff's flawed paper means that now there is NO evidence that government debt exceeding 90% of GDP somehow negatively impacts growth.<p>Let me repeat that: there is NO EVIDENCE that more government debt causes slower economic growth -- just theories.<p>I wonder what all the government deficit scaremongers will say to this!<p>--<p>PS. For reference, the often-cited paper by Reinhart and Rogoff can be downloaded at <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w15639.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.nber.org/papers/w15639.pdf</a> and the new paper debunking it can be downloaded at <a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_301-350/WP322.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/worki...</a><p>--<p>PS#2. An Excel typo was partly to blame for Reinhart and Rogoff's errors!  Reminds me of the Excel typo that allowed the "London Whale" silently to rack up billions of dollars in unexpected losses at JP Morgan: <a href="http://baselinescenario.com/2013/02/09/the-importance-of-excel/" rel="nofollow">http://baselinescenario.com/2013/02/09/the-importance-of-exc...</a>