He has produced a deep treatise on government debt, served as chairman of a world-spanning regulatory body, run Italy's central bank (while remaining coolly removed from the scandals and fracases of Italian politics) and made a pile of money working at Goldman Sachs — all without being pigeonholed as an academic, regulator or investment banker.
But it has to learn how to pay for that debt from serving customers, not speculators.
The Treasury backing of the debt will serve to make the bonds more attractive, he said.
These moves also led to a rapprochement with France, whose government and banks held much of the debt and served as Madagascar's advocate with other creditors.
The authors, Carlo Cottarelli, director of fiscal affairs, and Andrea Schaechter, a senior economist, concluded that public debt had served for decades as "the ultimate shock absorber — rising in bad times but not declining much in good times".
A deal for the resolution of Taiwan's status could save China $500 billion in defense spending by 2020 and allow Beijing to break even by 2030, while reducing America's debt and serving our broader economic interests.
And he is much more likely to push for bank holding companies to finance themselves with enough equity and long-term subordinated debt to serve as a loss-absorber in the case of financial failure.
Tempers had flared over the US Federal Reserve's latest $600bn bond-buying programme aimed at strengthening a shaky recovery, while Ireland's worsening debt troubles served as a reminder that the financial system is far from fully healed.
Mr. Thomas, who was careful to keep his glee in check, said he hoped that Democrats would trumpet Mr. Greenspan's words as loudly this time as when the Fed chairman said that reducing the national debt should serve as the linchpin in fiscal policy.
But when used correctly, debt can serve a valuable role in a company's capital structure.
