In the end, all the corrections advocated by the critics shift the average GDP growth for very-high-debt nations to 2.2 percent, from a negative 0.1 percent in Reinhart and Rogoff’s original work. The finding remains that economic growth is lower in very-high-debt countries (see chart). It has been disappointing to watch those on the left seize on the embarrassing Excel errors but ignore this bigger picture.
But still, isn't there a big difference between +2.2% and -0.1% growth? With +2.2% growth income will double in 30 years or so. With -0.1% growth income will never double. Plus, there is still the issue of causality: does slow growth cause debt or does debt cause slow growth?
I guess it has been disappointing to watch some argue that the R/R mistakes don't really matter.
