BIS warns global economy risks crisis ‘relapse’

© AFP/File | BIS chief economist said central banks around the world had been administering “powerful medicine” to counter the effects of the 2008 crisis, with “unusually and persistently low interest rates,” which came with some “inevitable” side effects

 

ZURICH (AFP) – The Bank of International Settlements said Sunday the global economy risked a “relapse” of the crisis that rocked it a decade ago, warning there was little “medicine” left to treat the patient a second time.

“Things look rather fragile,” BIS chief economist Claudio Borio told reporters in a conference call.

“There is little left in the medicine chest to nurse the patient back to health or care for him in case of a relapse,” he warned.

Global Debt Bubble Understated By $13 Trillion Warn BIS

 

– Global debt bubble may be understated by $13 trillion: BIS
– ‘Central banks central bank’ warns enormous liabilities have accrued in FX swaps, currency swaps & ‘forwards’
– Risk of new liquidity crunch and global debt crisis
– “The debt remains obscured from view…” warn BIS

Global debt may be under-reported by around $13 trillion because traditional accounting practices exclude foreign exchange derivatives used to hedge international trade and foreign currency bonds, the BIS said on Sunday.

BIS Warns of ‘Major Faultlines’ In Global Debt Bubble

– BIS warns “unrealistic and dangerous to expect that monetary policy can cure all the global economy’s ills”

– Bank of International Settlements warns that recent turmoil is not caused by isolated incidents

– Debt levels are now so extreme they threaten the financial system

– Ultra low rates have led to mal-investment and bigger boom/bust cycles

– Emerging markets vulnerable to deeper crises

– ECB easy money may juice markets for a while but reckoning is coming

– BIS acknowledge that central banks rig markets

– Gold and silver protect against crises in financial system

In a stark warning, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the central bank of central banks, has said in its quarterly report that the turmoil that has shaken global stock markets in recent weeks showed how developed and emerging markets were exposed to the unwinding of financial vulnerabilities built up since the 2008 crisis.

Bank for International Settlements warns low interest rate policies may generate next global financial crisis

The international body representing central banks is warning its members that record low interest rates are generating conditions for another global financial crisis that may be worse than the first.

In its annual report, the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS) expressed serious concern that global share markets had reached new highs and the interest rate premium for many risky loans had fallen.

“Overall, it is hard to avoid the sense of a puzzling disconnect between the markets’ buoyancy and underlying economic developments globally,” the bank wrote.

Worldwide credit excess ‘worse’ than pre-GFC: expert

The Swiss-based ‘bank of central banks’ says a hunt for yield is luring investors en masse into high-risk instruments, “a phenomenon reminiscent of exuberance prior to the global financial crisis”.

This is happening just as the US Federal Reserve prepares to wind down stimulus and starts to drain dollar liquidity from global markets, an inflexion point that is fraught with danger and could go badly wrong.

“This looks like to me like 2007 all over again, but even worse,” said William White, the Bank for International Settlement’s former chief economist, famous for flagging the wild behaviour in the debt markets before the global storm hit in 2008.