2015-04-20telegraph.co.uk

The International Monetary Fund has sounded the alarm on the exorbitant levels of debt across the world, this time literally... A baby boom and surging work-force enabled us to grow out of debt in the 1950s and 1960s without noticing it. No such outcome looks plausible today...

The report warned of a "persistent reduction" in the global growth rate since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, with no sign yet of a return to normal. "Lower potential growth will make it more difficult to reduce high public and private debt ratios," it said... the Fund's underlying message is that sky-high debt ratios and old-age populations are a dangerous mix, leaving the world prone to the "Japanese" diseases of deflation and atrophy.

...

[The notion of default] touches a raw nerve, for that is more or less what may happen within weeks if an angry Greece - aggrieved at the way it was sacrificed to save Europe's banks in 2010 - becomes the first developed country to miss a payment to the IMF, and perhaps the first of a long string of debtor-nations to turn the tables on their foreign creditors. Athens is where it all begins.

We would also add, the debt itself is probably suppressing global growth, but you won't see central bankers admit this (yet, all this observation requires is the leap of faith that diminishing returns in GDP with each additional dollar of debt eventually go to zero GDP/additional debt, and perhaps negative).



Comments: Be the first to add a comment

add a comment | go to forum thread