financial collapse – Page 4 – Desdemona Despair

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 […]

U.S. soybean oil futures, U.N. FAO edible oils index, and Malaysia palm oil futures, 2002-2022. Global edible oil prices have soared to all-time highs in 2022 on supply shocks. Graphic: Refinitiv / Reuters

April 23, 2022

Indonesia bans palm oil exports as global food inflation spikes – “Sky would be the limit for edible oil prices now”

By Fransiska Nangoy 22 April 2022 JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, announced plans to ban exports of the most widely used vegetable oil on Friday, in a shock move that could further inflame surging global food inflation. The halting of shipments of the cooking oil and its raw material, widely […]

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. […]

Afghan children play in the mud at an unofficial camp for internally displaced people in Herat, Afghanistan, May 2021. Photo: Charlie Faulkner

April 4, 2022

Devastated by worst drought in decades and economic turmoil, many in Afghanistan near starvation – “It is the speed, scale and source of the crisis that is so extreme”

By Holly Rosenkrantz 3 April 2022 (USA TODAY) – Afghanistan has faced grave hunger crises before. Two decades ago, people in the country were so hungry they resorted to eating wild grass. But the situation in the country now is unprecedented. Exacerbated by an unusually cold winter and the worst drought in decades, the economic […]

A woman uses a candle inside her house during a power cut in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 30 March 2022. Many parts of the crisis-hit country faced up to 13 hours without electricity due to a shortage of foreign currency to import fuel. Photo: AFP

April 3, 2022

Power cuts in Sri Lanka could continue into May 2022 – Nation experiencing worst economic spiral since independence in 1948

COLOMBO, 31 March 2022 (The Straits Times) – Sri Lanka’s power minister said on Thursday (31 March 2022) that power cuts could continue into May, as many parts of the crisis-hit country currently face up to 13 hours without electricity due to a shortage of foreign currency to import fuel. Pavithra Wanniarachchi said that a […]

Futures prices of West Texas intermediate crude oil and lithium, May 2021-March 2022. Graphic: Bloomberg

March 29, 2022

A world that’s more expensive is starting to destroy demand – “A renewed spike in gas prices would see demand destruction become more widespread”

By David R Baker, Allison Smith, and Sheela Tobben 27 March 2022 (Bloomberg) – Prices for some of the world’s most pivotal products – foods, fuels, plastics, metals – are spiking beyond what many buyers can afford. That’s forcing consumers to cut back and, if the trend grows, may tip economies already buffeted by pandemic […]

Lismore, Australia residents Tim Fry and Zara Coronakes and son Ezekiel stand outside the remains of their flooded home on 11 March 2022. Photo: Jason O'Brien / AAP

March 27, 2022

After the Australia floods, the distressing but necessary case for managed retreat – “Is it fair for taxpayers to carry the huge burden of paying for future rescue and relief costs?”

By Antonia Settle 13 March 2022 (The Conversation) – From Brisbane to Sydney, many thousands of Australians have been reliving a devastating experience they hoped – in 2021, 2020, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012 or 2010/11 – would never happen to them again. For some suburbs built on the flood plains of the Nepean River in […]

Generational wealth gap in the United States, 1989-2020. In 1998, the American population under 40 years old held 13.1 percent of America’s total wealth. In 2020, those under 40 hold only 6 percent of the total wealth. This means that millennials and Generation X own less than half of the wealth that older generations owned when they were the same age. Graphic: Self Financial, Inc.

February 19, 2022

Graph of the Day: Generational wealth gap in the United States, 1989-2020

20 December 2021 (Self Financial) – In 2021, the average net worth in an American household aged 64-75 reached over $1.2m [1], while the average household under 35 had a net worth of just $76k. With these massive generational wealth gaps, Self decided to dig deeper into the historical wealth distribution of different generations to understand […]