The same investment banking types educated in the same schools have been advising the same reckless leveraging practices all over the world over the past 15 years. They have taken the same textbook strategies that rapidly grew, and then blew up Enron in 2001, and scaled it over the rest of the planet.
No surprise then, that the same debt disease has now inflicted households, companies, cities, states and countries. No blood from stones, the revelation of unpayable debts is spreading. Of course, since the first wave of crisis hit in 2007, the architects of this disaster have in large managed to download much of their own exposure onto taxpayer-backed government agencies; maniacally brilliant for them. Devastating for everyone else.
In the next phase of the crisis, it will become clear that global debt is today many trillions bigger than 2008, and our governments and central banks are completely out of bailout ability.
Puerto Rico’s Gov. Alejandro García Padilla told the NYT his island nears a “death spiral” economically, with CNBC’s Kate Kelly. Here is a direct video link.
Also see, Seniors going bankrupt in soaring numbers:
According to Statistics Canada’s most recent numbers, in 2012, 42.5 per cent of people aged 65 and over still had debt. That’s a stunning increase of 55 per cent since 1999.
Bankruptcy trustee Doug Hoyes blames the lingering debt largely on our addiction to low interest loans.
“If you’ve got decent credit, you can go out and get a mortgage for 2.5 per cent. So why not be buying the bigger house?” he says. “Today we don’t need to save because we all have a line of credit.”
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