In recent times the US economy has been characterised by burgeoning budget and current account deficits and increasing amounts of foreign capital inflows. For the UK too, the budget deficit remains a central weakness in the economy.

In the light of these problems this book presents a consistent economic framework for analysing the effects and implications of large bond-financed deficits. The author uses an open-economy rational expectations model to explore to what extent governments can simply 'roll-over' debt by issuing more bonds without any help from the monetary authority. He examines too, the impact of foreign capital on the sustainability of domestic budget deficits the behaviour of exchange rates and the possible effects of fiscal and monetary policies. This model is placed in the context of the major economic orthodoxies and their competing stances and also of American monetary history from Truman to Reagan and the crash of 1987.

Focusing attention on a major problem in macroeconomics and for the chancellors of a number of economies, the book makes an important contribution to the understanding of this complex area.