How economies could insure themselves against the bad times | Robert Shiller

Issuing GDP-linked bonds is akin to buying insurance against economic distress

The time has come for national governments around the world to start issuing their debt in a new form, linked to their countries' resources. GDP-linked bonds, with coupons and principal that rise and fall in proportion to the issuing country's GDP, promise to solve many fundamental problems that governments face when their countries' economies falter. And, once GDP-linked bonds are issued by a variety of countries, investors will be attracted by the prospect of high returns when some of these countries do very well.

This new debt instrument is especially exciting because of its monumental size. Although issues may start out small, they will be very important from the outset. The capitalised value of total global GDP is worth far more than the world's stock markets and could be valued today in the quadrillions of US dollars.