Increasing public debt levels in developed countries (2008-2011) after the adoption of fiscal stimuli (2009 & 2010), as a reaction to possible negative consequences of the global financial crisis (2008), triggered off a controversial debate as to whether high debt harms future growth. A paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, published in 2009, showed that economies eventually fall off a cliff, meaning mean growth rate turns negative after a country's debt-to-GDP ratio surpassed a 90% threshold. Their paper, among other sources, has been used to justify the austerity measures introduced...