Attention Economy


Thursday, April 12, 2018

Higher Interest Rates and Risk of a Debt Crisis

Could the Fed Set Off a Debt Bomb?
Satyajit Das notes:
“Rising rates seem like a valedictory return to “normality” -- a marker of how successful the central banks’ heroic actions to counter the Great Recession were. What the celebration misses, though, is how swelling levels of debt will amplify the effect of any rate rises.
According to the Institute of International Finance, global debt reached a record $237 trillion in 2017 -- more than 327 percent of global GDP. Since 2007, when borrowing levels were a key factor in the financial crisis, debt has increased by $68 trillion, or more than 50 percent of global GDP.
In developed markets, the ratio of debt-to-GDP is around 380 percent. In emerging markets, the ratio is above 200 percent. While the rate of growth has slowed, this is only because of higher GDP growth -- driven, in part, by increased borrowing. A decade of unprecedently low global rates and abundant liquidity appears to have encouraged a spree of public and private debt accumulation.”

Related:
Flattening Yield Curve and the Fed:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-12/flattening-yield-curve-is-sending-message-about-fed-s-rate-plans