The world is drowning in debt

Covid-19 cost world governments some $14trn in fiscal support last year, and this year average global public debt will hit 99.5% of GDP.

Joe Biden
Joe Biden was scarred by the long, slow recovery from the 2008 crisis
(Image credit: © SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

“To paraphrase Mr Micawber: ‘Annual income $3,420bn, annual expenditure, $6,552bn, result misery!’” says Peter Warburton in the Halkin Letter. The Biden administration’s $1.9trn spending proposal is another milestone in America’s long march away from “fiscal responsibility”.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.