There is a troubling perspective rolling around some components of the conservative media landscape.  It posits that the economic difficulties in the West are shared by the rest of the world.  They are not.  Public-sector debt is a classic example of this. The advanced economies are sitting at a gross government debt-to-GDP ratio of 105 percent.  The emerging market and developing economies, which now make up a much larger share (almost 60 percent) of the global economy than do the advanced economies, are at just 43 percent and holding. The euro area's public debt is 94 percent of GDP, while the major advanced economies (G7) are at 118 percent.  Compare that to the so-called "other advanced economies" (i.e., the advanced economies excluding the G7 and euro area), who are at 40 percent, and the source of the debt problem in the advanced economies becomes clear.  Hint: it is the G7 and euro area. Emerging and developing Asia and...(Read Full Post)