Slaves of Leverage

I attended a Hindu wedding in New Delhi last week. Met a banker from Dubai and asked about real-estate. He said: leveraged, and massively. Leverage was the key word and I saw it. We are slaves of leverage, all of us christians, muslims, hindus, we are all dependent on leverage.

Regard this in the context of co-ordinated rate cuts and regulatory response. The economic world is powerless in front of the beast. Next the monetary authorities will cut rates to zero but leverage remains. The fiscal authorities reach for co-ordinated acts but leverage remains. Even those who are not leveraged want to take debt as real interest rates are sinking deeper into negative territory. It pays off to be leveraged.

My question is how long we endure? Where do we end up? It is a one-way street - finally we use all our effort and earnings to cover interest payments on our mortgage and consumption or business loans to financial institutions. We wander in the darkness of eternal repayments without future. And our only comfort is that inflated values of our real-estate and securities holdings just about match our debt. It is no longer about growth. It is about a fragile balance, globally.

I would want to be an optimist but when the day arrives when individuals or corporations cannot repay, bankcrupties follow en masse. Then we have lost the fragile balance. Governments step in making rebalancing acts and bear the debt on behalf of its citizens and corporations. Iceland has showed the way, the US is creating its own variation of the theme. Finally some government does not meet the requirements and fail to balance its society. What can that nation do? Turn to protectionism and isolationism. Same goes with individuals.

Do we have mechanisms to forgive debt on global level? No, I guess. This is about leverage or unrest. Please give me my debt. I am a slave of leverage. We all are.