What has happened to the crowding-out effect linked to the increase in public debt in OECD countries?
If we look at OECD countries as a whole, we see that their current-account balance has been more or less continuously balanced since 2009: these countries’ internal developments have not been counterbalanced by any external adjustment. In OECD countries, the public debt ratio has risen sharply since the crisis: if it is not offset by an increase in external debt, this rise should be counterbalanced by: Either a corresponding increase in the stock of domestic private savings; Or a crowding-out of a certain type of private capital: productive corporate capital or housing capital. We see that what has balanced the rise in OECD countries’ public debt ratio since the crisis has mainly been a fall in housing investment and capital. Is this really a crowding-out? This is rather a reaction to the excess ive housing investment in the past .