Is there life after debt ?

Is there life after debt ?  Towards end 2011, the world was hanging on the heart-beating wrangle within the US Congress on the financing of the US government budget and means to reduce its huge amount of debt. There was a last minute crippled agreement, but the suspense continues as the Congress will continue to squabble over budget reductions and debt ceilings. Then, it was the turn of Europe with its train of budget deficits and high unsustainable public debts. The drama of Greek crisis and its accompanying suspense (referendum or not referendum, to be (in) or not to be?) is but one of the episodes of the Eurozone tragedy which engulfs many member countries in a similar unenviable situation of budget imbalances and large public debts. These dramatic developments of Eurozone debts and the theatrical partisan in-fighting to reduce the US huge government debt illustrate the difficult struggle of some OECD countries to tackle the conundrum of huge public debts and fiscal deficits. Putting aside any political consideration, can we identify in the most simple manner the main factors behind the public debt conundrum and imagine possible  approaches to debt reduction ? by Anh-Nga Tran-Nguyen