There’s a certain amount to disagree with in this Financial Times article by Tim Bond, a former asset manager and macro-economic strategist. References to “Spaceship Earth” and to mysterious “oligopolies” restraining innovation don’t exactly inspire confidence. Nevertheless, it’s well worth noting this passage:
According to the BIS [the Bank of International Settlements], since the start of this century, advanced economy non-financial debt (that is debt owed by governments, business and households) has risen by 86 percentage points of GDP to just shy of 300 per cent of GDP. The world has never been as levered as it is today.
When central banks were able to suppress interest rates well below the trend rate of nominal GDP growth, these magnified debt burdens were supportable. . . .
Now, not so much.