Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

US Overdosing on Debt

Interest-Rates / US Debt Mar 19, 2019 - 04:33 PM GMT

By: Harry_Dent

Interest-Rates On Friday, I talked about how the last 11 years have been no better than cumulative GDP during the Great Depression (1929-1940). I’ll talk more about that on Thursday. Today I want to point out the biggest difference between this Economic Winter Season and the one 80 years ago…

That is: Central banks!

Thanks to their interference, our massive debt bubble didn’t deleverage as it should have!

Total debt peaked at $58.4 trillion, or four times GDP, in the first quarter of 2009 and just barely deleveraged in the financial and consumer sectors during the Great Recession.


But massive money printing and cowardly suspension of mark-to-market policies for loans let the banks off the hook.



The Economic Winter Season’s primary purpose is to flush out unproductive debt and deleverage financial asset bubbles that are weighing down the economy and stoking income inequality.

It forces businesses to cut excessive costs and get more efficient.

All of this makes the economy much more productive and ignites a strong recovery, like the one we saw from 1933 to 1937… and for decades to follow.

Well… no detox means no strong recovery!

Japan is the poster child for a comatose economy three decades after their great crash.

Our poor GDP numbers over the last 11 years is evidence closer to home.

Still, our debt continues to grow. Government debt leads the way, with corporate debt close on its heels.



Federal government debt has exploded from $7.8 trillion to $17.9. That’s a 129% increase.

The government debt has been doubling about every two administrations or every eight years. Counting the trust funds like Social Security (sitting around) $5.9 trillion, we’re up to $23.8 trillion.

Overall government debt, including state and local, is now at $26.8 trillion; up 77%.

Foreign debt is up the most: 152%, to $4 trillion… but it is the smallest sector.

The other big sector is corporate debt. It has grown from $10.6 trillion to $15.2 trillion. That’s an increase of 44%. And the majority of that debt is BBB rated or lower… just one step above junk.

The whole world went on a corporate debt spree. What with low interest rates it was a no-brainer.

In the U.S., much of that cheap money went to buying back stock to leverage earnings; a move that will look stupid when companies most need cash to survive the greatest shake-out of our lifetimes during the next several years.

Consumer debt is only marginally higher than it was at the 2009 peak, with mortgage debt down 2%. But consumer credit – cards and car loans – are up 53%. And a subprime auto credit crisis is rearing its ugly head, with defaults a major – and growing – concern.

Financial debt is down 9%… but this was the most toxic and out-of-whack sector in the 2008 meltdown. The fact that it’s still this high 11 years later is actually terrifying.

The implications are clear and simple: We’ll have to finally see debt deleverage from higher levels in the next crisis, which is clearly due between 2020 and 2023 by my most important cycles.

It won’t be pretty. In fact, it’ll look like 1930 to 1933. Only this time, rather than having the crash at the beginning of the Economic Winter Season, like we saw at the start of the Great Depression, we’ll have the crisis at the end.

2008 to 2023 will go down in history as the Economic Winter Season central banks couldn’t stop.

Harry

http://economyandmarkets.com

Follow me on Twitter @HarryDentjr

P.S. Another way to stay ahead is by reading the 27 simple stock secrets that our Seven-Figure Trader says are worth $588,221. You’ll find the details here.

Harry studied economics in college in the ’70s, but found it vague and inconclusive. He became so disillusioned by the state of the profession that he turned his back on it. Instead, he threw himself into the burgeoning New Science of Finance, which married economic research and market research and encompassed identifying and studying demographic trends, business cycles, consumers’ purchasing power and many, many other trends that empowered him to forecast economic and market changes.

Copyright © 2019 Harry Dent- All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Harry Dent Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in