Publications

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January 2014 (Revised February 2016)
Case

U.S. Government Debt and the Debate over a Balanced Budget Amendment

By: Matthew Weinzierl, Katrina Flanagan and Alastair Su

In the first decade of the 21st century, national debt as a share of GDP rose dramatically in the United States and across the developed world. This case consists of excerpts from leading commentators explaining and commenting on this trend and the economic and moral... View Details

Keywords: National Debt; Social Discount Rate; Ricardian Equivalence; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; United States

2019
Working Paper

Second Chance: Life with Less Student Debt

By: Marco Di Maggio, Ankit Kalda and Vincent Yao

Rising student debt is considered one of the creeping threats of our time. This paper examines the effect of student debt relief on individual credit and labor market outcomes. We exploit the plausibly random debt discharge due to the inability of National Collegiate,... View Details

Keywords: Student Debt; Private Student Loans; Legal Settlement; Mobility; Debt Collection; Debt Relief; Borrowing and Debt; Personal Finance; Outcome or Result; United States

SSRN

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June 2018
Case

Japan: Deficits, Deflation and Debt

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

In April 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was again in Washington to petition Donald Trump. After years of rapid, export-led growth, Japan had slumped into recession in 1991 and never really recovered. For the past 27 years, its economy has grown at 1.1% annually,... View Details

Keywords: Deflation; Debt; Country Analysis; Monetary Expansion; Population Growth; Inflation and Deflation; Borrowing and Debt; Economy; Energy; National Security; Japan

April 2017 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The U-Turns of National Truck Stops

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Alexander W. Schultz

Raj Makam had spent months trying to restructure a 2006 investment he had made in National Truck Stops, Inc. (NTS) as a senior member of Oaktree Capital Management’s (Oaktree) Mezzanine finance business within their Corporate Debt platform. It was the first time they... View Details

Keywords: Mezzanine Financing; Corporate Debt; Bankruptcy; Real Assets; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Private Equity; Cost vs Benefits; Atlanta; New York (city, NY)

June 2017
Teaching Note

The U-Turns of National Truck Stops

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Alexander W. Schultz

Raj Makam had spent months trying to restructure a 2006 investment he had made in National Truck Stops, Inc. (“NTS”) as a senior member of Oaktree Capital Management’s (“Oaktree”) Mezzanine finance business within their Corporate Debt platform. It was the first time... View Details

Keywords: Mezzanine Financing; Corporate Debt; Bankruptcy; Real Assets; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Private Equity; Cost vs Benefits; Atlanta; New York (city, NY)

10 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Views on Debt Crisis

likely contributed to the great recession by inflating the housing and credit bubbles in 2005-2007. But when it comes to sovereign risk, they are getting it right. Across the world, there are many serious threats to the long-term ability to repay View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Jun 2008
News

You Only Thought You Were Republican

racked up a cumulative deficit — the national debt — of nearly $10 trillion . . . and fully three-quarters of that was racked up under just 3 of our 43 presidents: Reagan, Bush, and Bush. We all realize that... View Details

Keywords: Andrew Tobias; national debt; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Government

January 1994
Case

National Convenience Stores, Inc.

By: Steven R. Fenster, Stuart C. Gilson and Roy Burstin

National Convenience Stores seeks to emerge from Chapter 11. Central to the nature of the reorganization plan is the company's determining enterprise value. The various constituencies (secured debt, unsecured debt, etc.) will seek to find an enterprise value that... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Valuation; Restructuring; Strategic Planning; Borrowing and Debt; Food and Beverage Industry; Texas

05 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Watching for the Next Economic Downturn? Follow Corporate Debt

What really fuels a boom-and-bust cycle in the modern global economy? It’s not always household debt, says a new paper that parses in-depth data across 115 countries. Instead, rising corporate debt may flash the clearest warning that a... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

September 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Case

National Australia Bank: Looking Out for the Customer

By: Mark R. Kramer and Hugh Foley

After learning that most defaults were due to health, job or marital problems, National Australia Bank revised its debt collection department to shift from penalizing people in default to assisting them in developing a work-out plan, enabling more than 90% to meet... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Borrowing and Debt; Customer Focus and Relationships; Success; Australia

02 Jun 2011
What Do You Think?

Is it Time for a National Bankruptcy?

Japan would approach the ratios of the US. Even assuming that all such long-term projections are never accurate, is it possible that a country could fall into bankruptcy? What does national bankruptcy mean? Years ago economists told us... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

25 Apr 2014
News

To Pay Or Not To Pay: Argentina And The International Debt Market

20 Jul 2021
News

America's Medical Debt Is Much Worse Than We Think

25 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

To Pay or Not to Pay: Argentina and the International Debt Market

favorable court judgment was possible with the right covenants; collecting on that debt was not. Finding "attachable assets" that successful litigants could access remains challenging to this day, since sovereign View Details

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro

22 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Forgiving Student Loan Debt Leads to Better Jobs, Stronger Consumers

Kalda, and Vincent W. Yao of Georgia State University. The paper shines a light on a student debt crisis that Democratic presidential hopefuls have called a national emergency. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

15 Aug 2011
News

HBS Faculty Offer International Perspective On Debt Ceiling and Market Turmoil

2019
Working Paper

Fiscal Rules and Sovereign Default

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

Recurrent concerns over debt sustainability in emerging and developed nations have prompted renewed debate on the role of fiscal rules. Their optimality, however, remains unclear. We provide a quantitative analysis of fiscal rules in a standard model of sovereign debt... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Debt; Hyperbolic Discounting; Fiscal Rules; Sovereign Finance

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1986
Chapter

Investing in the Defense Workforce: The Debt and Structure of Military Pensions

By: Dutch Leonard

Keywords: Human Capital; Compensation and Benefits; Borrowing and Debt; Sovereign Finance; National Security