While Roseanne Barr stole all the headlines yesterday afternoon, the global economy was teetering on the brink. It's really kind of amazing how economic shifts don't make the news anymore. I think everyone's just kind of hoping that if they ignore it hard enough, maybe it just might go away. I've got some bad news for everyone… that ain't happening.
The Dow closed out yesterday falling over one and a half percent at nearly 400 points in the hole. It marked the third straight day of trading losses for both the Dow and S&P 500. A run on the nation's largest banks ensued throughout the day. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America all lost more than 3%. That's kind of a big deal don't you think? Interesting how none of this is getting talked about in the media.
So what's causing all this turmoil? Again, something you won't hear about from any of the mainstream news networks today, but global debt has reached catastrophic record numbers. Global debt is now at $164 trillion… and rising!
These numbers are absolutely insane.
$164 trillion is 225% of global GDP. The governments of the world never really recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. All they did was print money and leverage the farm. The world is now twelve percent of GDP deeper in debt than it was at peak debt cycle during the financial crisis in 2009.
The hardest hit since 2008 has been China. They've been spending themselves into oblivion trying to compensate. Since the financial crisis, China accounts for three-quarters of the world's debt increase, but Japan and the United States are right there with them. That's all of the top three economies in the world, desperately kicking the can down the road and hoping no one will notice that the sky is falling.
As all of this is happening and we still refuse to cut spending. Can you imagine how much worse all this will get if someone like Bernie Sanders ever becomes president?
To make matters even worse, Italy - the third largest economy in Europe - is on the brink of default. There's currently a political power struggle going on that may decide the fate over Italy's future in the EU. On top of that, Italy has one of the largest national debts in the world and an unemployment rate over 11%. It's economy is now worse off than it was before 2007. The Italians tried, like everyone else, to borrow and spend their way out of the financial crisis, but they never recovered.
They now have a ton of debt that they now have to pay back in US dollars. The problem now is that - as of yesterday afternoon - the Euro fell below one dollar and sixteen cents to the Dollar. In fact, the Dollar is surging which is making all those Italian loans more and more expensive. Default is a real concern. If that happens, economic contagion could spread on its way to a much larger meltdown.
As all of this is happening and we still refuse to cut spending. Can you imagine how much worse all this will get if someone like Bernie Sanders ever becomes president? Spending is already at record levels, and this new wave of Democratic Socialists want free healthcare, college tuition and a higher minimum wage. If they get what they want, the economic ramifications will make 2008 look like child's play.