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Global debt levels rose to more than 325 percent of the world's gross domestic product last year as government debt rose sharply, a report from the Institute for International Finance showed on Wednesday.
The IIF's report found that global debt had risen more than $11 trillion in the first nine months of 2016 to more than $217 trillion. The report also found that general government debt accounted for nearly half of the total increase.
Emerging market debt rose substantially, as government bond and syndicated loan issuance in 2016 grew to almost three times its 2015 level.
Source: Reuters
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Global Debt Hits 325% Of World GDP, Rises To Record $217 Trillion
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belief, n:
Something you do not believe.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tempest on Friday January 06 2017, @03:48PM
Some of this debt is abstracted so it's almost hard to comprehend. For example, US Dollars aren't just printed into existence. The Federal Reserve writes a check (with nothing backing it) to buy government bonds. Those bonds pay interest, so essentially US Dollars are borrowed into existence. So you can imagine how the debt accumulates fairly quickly with "Quantitative Easing" and other government spending. Governments don't have money of their own however, they obtain money through taxation. So government debt obligations are an abstraction for future tax revenues - mostly for our kids and their kids.
This is a good explanation of how our government debt works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0 [youtube.com]