debt – Page 2 – Desdemona Despair

Vehicles queue for diesel and petrol as they wait for a fuel tanker since the previous day amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 23 June 2022. Photo: Dinuka Liyanawatte / REUTERS

June 26, 2022

Sri Lanka almost out of fuel, with no fresh supplies in sight – Troops open fire to quell rioting at fuel station – “Our economy has faced a complete collapse,” prime minister says

25 June 2022 (The Guardian) – Sri Lanka has increased the price of fuel by up to 22 percent after the energy minister warned it had virtually run out of petrol and diesel after several expected shipments were delayed. Kanchana Wijesekera apologised to motorists as he said on Saturday that oil cargoes that were due […]

A protester in Sri Lanka hurls a tear-gas canister back at the police officers who fired it, 19 May 2022. Photo: Atul Loke / The New York Times

May 22, 2022

Sri Lanka is the first domino to fall in the face of a global debt crisis – Will Bangladesh be next? – “I’m deeply concerned about developing countries”

By Larry Elliott 9 May 2022 (The Guardian) – The departure of Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, follows weeks of protest and a deepening crisis. There is no bankruptcy system for states but if there was then the south Asian country – down to its last $50m (£40m) of reserves – would be first in […]

Protesters set a bus on fire during a demonstration outside the Sri Lankan president’s home in Colombo on 31 March 2022.Photo: Ishara S. Kodikara / AFP / Getty Images

May 11, 2022

Sri Lanka crisis: shoot-on-sight order issued as troops deployed in Colombo – Mobs burn more than 50 houses belonging to politicians – Ex-PM flees to naval base

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen 11 May 2022 (The Guardian) – Troops and armoured vehicles have been deployed across the city of Colombo and security officials given orders to shoot on sight anyone deemed to be participating in violence as anti-government protests continued to rock Sri Lanka. The crisis turned volatile earlier this week after pro-government supporters began attacking […]

World Bank COVID-19 Business Pulse Survey Dashboard, March 2022. Data cover 24 middle-and low-income countries. As of January 2021, 40 percent of surveyed businesses expected to be in arrears within six months, including more than 70% of firms in Nepal and the Philippines and over 60 percent of firms in Turkey and South Africa. Graphic: World Bank

May 5, 2022

The next global debt crisis is hiding in plain sight – With emergency debt moratoriums ending, vulnerable households and businesses confront loan repayments they can no longer afford

By Carmen Reinhart and Leora Klapper 2 May 2022 WASHINGTON (Project Syndicate) – When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, private-debt crises were probably already brewing—albeit hidden from view—in many parts of the world, as a result of the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the war is pushing even more countries toward similar […]

Sri Lanka rice farmer Niluka Dilrukshi with his wife, Milinda, and their two children. They saw their rice crop deplete by 60 percent in the last harvest due to the government chemical pesticide ban. Photo: Hannah Ellis-Petersen / The Guardian

April 21, 2022

Sri Lanka reels from rash fertiliser ban – “If things go on like this, in the future it will be hard to find a farmer left in Sri Lanka”

By Hannah Ellis-Petersen 20 April 2022 RAJANGANAYA, Sri Lanka (The Guardian) – Driving through the verdant landscape of Rajanganaya, a rural district in north Sri Lanka where the hibiscus flowers pop out of rich green foliage and the mango trees are already weighed down by early fruit, it is hard to imagine this is a […]

Percent change of total consumer credit, seasonally adjusted at an annual rate, March 2002-February 2022. Debt levels jumped by nearly $42 billion to a total of almost $4.5 trillion, an annual increase of 11.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, which set a new high and far outperformed economists’ expectations. In January 2022, total credit had grown only 2.4 percent. Graphic: U.S. Federal Reserve Board

April 18, 2022

U.S. consumer debt jumped by $40 billion in February 2022, an annual increase of 11.3 percent and a new high

By Anneken Tappe 7 April 2022 NEW YORK (CNN Business) – Americans got into a lot more debt in February as rampant inflation kept up the pressure, the Federal Reserve’s consumer credit report showed Thursday. Debt levels jumped by nearly $42 billion to a total of almost $4.5 trillion. That’s an annual increase of 11.3%, seasonally adjusted, far outperforming […]

Thousands of Sri Lankans demonstrate against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 9 April 2022. Protesters demanded Rajapaksa’s resignation, saying neither he nor members of his family could be trusted to steer the country out of its deepening economic crisis. At the Galle Face Green on Colombo’s waterfront on Saturday, students, teachers, lawyers, actors and architects – many of whom said they were protesting for the first time – chanted “madman Gota” and “Go home Gota”, in a reference to the president’s nickname, as they gathered under a blistering sun. Photo: Al Jazeera

April 13, 2022

Drugs running out, surgeries cancelled as Sri Lanka’s health system buckles – “This will result in a catastrophic number of deaths”

By Devjyot Ghoshal and Uditha Jayasinghe 12 April 2022 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Rosanne White was first diagnosed with cancer eight years ago and lost a kidney. After the cancer returned five years ago, an oncologist in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital Colombo started her on Bevacizumab last May, a treatment she was responding to. […]

Total U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP, 1900-2021 and projected to 2051. In CBO’s projections, federal debt held by the public reaches 107 percent of GDP (surpassing its historical high) in 2031 and continues to climb. Federal debt held by the public is projected to equal 202 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2051, and the deficit is projected to equal 13 percent of GDP. Graphic: CBO

March 6, 2021

U.S. debt to break World War 2 record by 2031 – “Even if economic conditions were more favorable than CBO currently projects, debt in 2051 will probably be much higher than it is today”

By Niv Elis 4 March 2021 (The Hill) – The nation’s debt burden is on track to surpass its historic high point in a decade, reaching 107 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2031, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (pdf). The debt surpassed 100 percent of GDP last year […]

U.S household debt to 2019. Data: New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel (CCP). Graphic: Haughwout, et al., 2019 / Federal Reserve Bank of New York

March 14, 2020

Graph of the Day: U.S household debt, 1945-2018

March 2019 (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) – […] In Figure 1, we combine 1999-2018 data from the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel (CCP) with the considerably longer, but less detailed, data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Financial Accounts of the United States. What is immediately apparent in the figure is the dramatic […]