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The World Is $199 Trillion in Debt, and Growing<br>
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By John C. Ogg<br>
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The world’s economies may have improved since the financial crisis,
but now more than ever, the world is drowning in higher and higher
debt. A new report from the <a
href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/economic_studies/debt_and_not_much_deleveraging"
target="_blank">McKinsey Global Institute</a> suggests that the
world has added a whopping $57 trillion in debt since the financial
crisis. The firm pointed out that all major economies currently have
higher levels of borrowing relative to gross domestic product (GDP)
versus the year 2007, right before the Great Recession and financial
crisis. The net global debt added since then is now projected as a
ratio of debt to GDP to be up 17 percentage points.
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<p>The new total of global debt, as of the end of the second quarter
of 2014, is a whopping $199 trillion. This massive number compares
to $142 trillion at the end of 2007, and it compares to a mere $87
trillion at the end of 2000 (see first image below).</p>
<p>McKinsey’s report highlighted three areas of emerging risk that
all of this new debt poses. First is the rise of government debt,
and second is the continued rise in household debt — and housing
prices — to new peaks in Northern Europe and some Asian countries.
Third is the quadrupling of China’s debt.</p>
<p>Before you think that this ballooning debt applies only to
governments, it does not. This also applies to households,
corporations and financial-related debt.<br>
</p>
McKinsey further warns that global household debt is reaching new
peaks. It was only in nations like the United States, the United
Kingdom, Ireland and Spain where households have actually
deleveraged since the financial crisis. The total household debt in
other nations, including the household debt-to-income ratios, have
continued to rise. These nations with higher debt were said to
include nations such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, the
Netherlands, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.<br>
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The remainder of this story, including graphic charts, is at: <b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tinyurl.com/pk538be">http://tinyurl.com/pk538be</a></b>
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<br>
Ken<br>
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