Posts Tagged ‘debt’

China Sells Off Part Of Its Piece Of The American Pie

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

“WASHINGTON — China, the biggest buyer of U.S. Treasury securities, reduced its holdings in December for the second straight month.

Overseas demand for Treasurys helps lower the interest rate the U.S. government pays on its debt. If the United States had to finance its debt through U.S. investors alone, the government would have to pay higher rates. American companies and consumers would also pay higher rates.”

What do you think?

Remember when we asked about the U.S. back-up plan on the off chance our biggest foreign debt holder decided to sell off our Treasury bonds? Well.

Maybe they’re just rebalancing their national portfolio. Or following the age-old rule of “don’t put all your eggs in one basket?”

What If China Says “Sorry, Pay Up” to U.S.?

Friday, February 4th, 2011


credit: Lars Plougmann

Is there a “Plan B?”

  • Countries like the U.S. sell government bonds to raise money. Bonds are a form of debt – when the bond-holder cashes in their bond, the government has to pay them back with interest.
  • China is the biggest buyer of U.S. Treasury bonds, which means that if it suddenly sold off a lot of them, it could screw up the entire U.S. market.
  • A dramatic change like that would also hurt China’s economy, so there are probably only two situations in which China would consider selling off that much U.S. debt:
  1. China and the U.S. get into a serious fight. Like, a military-style fight, probably over resources in Asia
  2. China starts to think the American dollar is going to totally tank, and gets out while it still can
  • So what’s Plan B? There is no official plan, but the U.S. government would probably start asking its own citizens and its friends around the world to buy a whole lot of bonds. And the Fed would have a much bigger problem on its hands than the recession.

Facts & Figures

  • China is the United States’ biggest creditor in the world
  • If you include Hong Kong, China holds almost $1 trillion in U.S. debt

Best Quotes

“I worry that we could be at a tipping point.” – Eswar Prasad, economist at the Brookings Institution, former IMF official

“The U.S. government should have and maybe still could call on the people of the U.S. to invest in U.S. debt…. What we need to do is have a plan that’s reasoned, reasonable, can reassure our foreign lenders and also demonstrate to the American people that Washington can get something done” – David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General

What do you think?

How has your life been affected by the rise of China?

This one’s for the geeks: Debtris

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

From our heroes at Information Is Beautiful, a Tetris-inspired re-imagining of the Billion-Dollar-o-Gram.

U.S. Becoming Less Trustworthy? TILE Two-Liners 1.10.11 >> 1.14.11

Monday, January 10th, 2011

MONDAY

  • Portugal promises to pay you a handsome 7% interest rate if you lend it some money by buying a bond. Of course, the country may go bankrupt trying to pay you back. (BBC News)

TUESDAY

  • Economic growth in China, U.S., France, and Japan may lead the way to a good year for the rest of the world. (The Wall Street Journal)

WEDNESDAY

  • Whew! Portugal doesn’t have to bribe bond buyers with handsome rates after all. European markets stop freaking out about a potential bailout. (The Washington Post)

THURSDAY

  • Mother nature shows interest in finance, dumps water on Australia. Flooding could cost the country up to 1% in economic growth this year! (BBC News)

FRIDAY

  • You’re not the only one who should be worrying about your credit score – because of rising debt, the U.S. may lose its sparkling AAA credit rating. (The Wall Street Journal)

Italy Cutting Higher Education To Balance Budget

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Weak economy, lots of debt, high unemployment. Up next: fewer universities!

Read the original to see students handing books to riot police in Rome:
BBC News, 12/22/10: Italian students demonstrate against education reforms

How A Bunch Of Really Smart Kids Ruined Everything (Volume 1)

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

“Repo 105″ – like Four Loko, but more dangerous to the health of your company.

Ever wonder how enormous old financial firms suddenly bite the dust? Well, the answer (according to the man suing Ernst & Young for civil fraud)  is that they do stupid things with the help of accountants.

According to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, giant accounting firm Ernst & Young helped their client Lehman Brothers hide billions of dollars in debt so that it would look like a healthier company than it really was. For seven years. Until (surprise!) Lehman went bankrupt in 2008.

Lehman owed a lot of people a lot of money (like, billions of dollars). But they didn’t want to go around telling people about it.

mathemagician-by-kf6gpe.jpg

credit: kf6gpe

So (according to the lawsuit) Ernst & Young helped them hide their little debt problem with a ninja accounting tactic called “Repo 105.” Basically, Lehman would sell off a bunch of their assets and use the money to pay off some debt. That day was a good day, because when they had to show their financial reports to the world, it looked like they didn’t owe billions of dollars.

But – here’s the genius part – the next day, they would buy back the assets they sold at an even higher price, taking on more debt than they had before.

In exchange for its creative accounting services, Ernst & Young received $150 million in fees from Lehman between 2001 and 2008. Ernst says it was just using “generally accepted accounting principles,” which makes you wonder what other firms have been drinking. Cuomo says it will be paying those fees back to the State of New York by the time he’s done with them.

A Liability is…

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

A liability is anything that an individual or organization owes to someone else. Liabilities can be salaries owed to employees, dividends owed to shareholders, taxes owed to the government, fixed or long-term debt such as bonds (which must be repaid with interest to the holder) or bank loans (which must be repaid with interest to the bank). Liabilities are the opposite of assets.

A City Pawns Its Zoo To Keep The Lights On

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Selling off parts of the city may help right now, but is it really a good idea?

  • Facing record budget shortfalls, cities and states across the country have come up with a creative solution: privatize. Privatizing means selling off city properties to private companies – parking lots, buildings, airports, even zoos.
  • Companies pay governments lump sums for these income-generating properties, but the cities lose that future income and end up losing money on the sale. This raises the question of whether it’s better for a city to pay off its debts now or hold onto its assets to secure income for the future.
  • Privatization is not new. America and other nations have been doing it for years. Private companies often have more cash and economic motivation to improve quality and efficiency of public properties like roads and parking lots, but ultimately they only answer to their shareholders – not to the tax-paying populace.

Facts & Figures

  • In 2008, Chicago sold the rights to 36,000 of its metered parking spaces for $1.16 billion.
  • Selling off public assets can cause rating agencies to downgrade government credit ratings.
  • A Pittsburgh deal to lease out its parking system for 50 years for a $300 million lump sum payment is predicted to lose the city $3.5 billion in revenues.

Best Quote

“The investors will make their money back in 20 years and we are stuck for 50 more years making zero dollars.” – Scott Waguespack, an alderman who voted against the 2008 Chicago parking lease

Foreign-Currency Debt Hits Hard In Central Europe

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

In Europe’s tight quarters, borrowing from your neighbor across the border could lead you down a bumpy road.

  • Central European households and small businesses are struggling under the weight of foreign-currency debts.
  • The fluctuation in interest rates and currency values associated with foreign-currency lending has put many into debt, resulting in stalled economies as people try to pay off loans.
  • Governments are scrambling to implement preventative regulations, including legislation to ban foreign-currency mortgage loans and a government buyout fund that would allow borrowers to convert their foreign loans to their native currency.

Facts & Figures

  • In Hungary, nearly 70% of the country’s total household debt was borrowed in foreign currency.
  • In the Baltic states 70-90% of household borrowing is in foreign currency.

Best Quote

“Hungary is close to its non-performing loan peak.” – Sandor Csanyi, Chief Executive, OTP

Ford Gives The U.S. Hope

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Ford reports an exceptionally strong first half of 2010 and causes optimism for the U.S. auto industry.

  • Ford’s second-quarter earnings were much stronger than expected and the company is on track for “solid profits” in 2010.
  • Ford plans to discontinue its Mercury brand and sell Volvo to China’s Geely in the 3rd quarter because it wants to focus on mass marketing Ford and Lincoln brands.
  • Ford was the only large U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy in 2009, and is therefore in greater debt than GM and Chrysler.
  • Ford paid back 7 billion dollars of debt in the 2nd quarter (now $27.3 billion in debt) and plans to continue debt reduction.

Facts & Figures

  • Second-quarter net profits were $2.6 billion, compared to $2.26 one year ago.
  • Ford revenue increased by $4.5 billion to $31.3 billion.
  • This is the 4th consecutive quarter that Ford has reported profits.

Best Quote

“We delivered a very strong second quarter and first half of 2010 and are ahead of where we thought we would be despite the still-challenging business conditions.” -Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co., Chief Executive