Co-Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO Bill Gross speaks during a conference. Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Nations have reached a “Keynesian endpoint” as exhausted balance sheets leave policy makers with few options to bolster economic growth, according to Anthony Crescenzi, an investor at Pacific Investment Management Co., the world’s largest bond-fund manager.
“Time, devaluations, and debt restructurings might be the only way out for many nations,” Crescenzi wrote in an e-mailed note titled “Keynesian Endpoint” that referenced the Great Depression era economist John Maynard Keynes. Debt-fueled spending programs aimed at combating the global financial crisis of 2008 are among policy tools now “being seen as a magic elixir that has morphed into poison.”
A debt crisis that began in Greece is threatening to slow global economic growth, pushing the euro down 17 percent this year as governments across Europe cut spending. Spain lost its AAA credit grade at Fitch Ratings, and Moody’s Investors Service said the U.S.’s top ranking will come under pressure unless the government reduces budget deficits.
In the U.S., public borrowings passed $13 trillion for the first time this month, according to the Treasury Department. The debt will be larger than U.S. gross domestic product, now $14.2 trillion annually, in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund.
