By mid-2014, total global debt — government, corporate and household — had reached $199 trillion, an increase of $57 trillion from the end of 2007. That’s about $27,500 for every person on the planet.
WASHINGTON — It’s not just Greece, Puerto Rico and China. Debt is piling up around the world — stifling global economic growth and heightening the risk of more defaults and market turmoil.
World leaders are caught in a trap: More debt in the form of government and private spending is needed to stimulate today’s sluggish economies. Yet the higher the debt, the greater the danger that a pullback by creditors will trigger another financial crisis like the one in 2008.