While some analysts view Germany as a bigger historical debt problem than Greece, a more detailed look at the situation reveals a different perspective. The IMF maintains a historical public debt database for many countries and regions. The data reveals that Greece has a 130+ year long addiction to high levels of debt, especially when compared to Germany and the European average. It is important to note that we know little about actual public debt levels during and immediately after the World Wars for nations such as Greece and Germany (i.e., the straight lines on the chart during these wartime periods are due to an absence of data, and don't reflect actual values). That said, starting in the mid-1880s, Greece's debt exploded from about 50 percent of GDP up to 225 percent of GDP within a decade -- and stayed at these very high levels until falling down to the still elevated level of 65 percent of GDP just before the onset of World War I. Between the World Wars,...(Read Full Post)