I have been asked to speak on the subject of "Who Will Solve the Debt Crisis"(1). Today, I will argue that: external imbalances are as much at the root of the current crisis as fiscal imbalances; better coordination among international policymakers can help to attenuate these external imbalances; prior domestic economic reforms will facilitate coordination; generally, a high level of financial claims is more of a symptom of past failures to reform than the disease itself; and if international cooperation and economic reform come up short (which is not our base case), global growth could sputter, public and private sector indebtedness could remain high, and some speculative-grade sovereigns could resolve their fiscal difficulties through default. I'll divide my remarks into
