<p>Although the causes of the crisis are multifaceted, including a lack of financial market regulation, rising income inequality and global current account imbalances, the current policy debates are dominated by a narrow focus on the so-called public debt crisis in many countries. Judging by the quality of these debates, it would even seem that many politicians see the high public debt levels as the main cause of the crisis, when in fact they are largely a consequence of it. By contrast, the deeper origins of the crisis are still not being properly addressed. The contributions collected in the present book are united by the objective to analyse the issue of public debt in the larger context of macroeconomic and social imbalances.</p>
