Why 70 countries in debt could spark the biggest global economic crisis since 1929

CNA Insider – 26-10-2023

Some 70 countries are in or at risk of debt distress – a record number that has the World Bank sounding the alarm. Debt defaults by these emerging and developing countries could lead the world into a global financial crisis perhaps even on par with the Great Depression of 1929. The pattern is clear from three previous debt waves: the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, and the global financial crisis triggered by the 2007 US subprime crisis.

00:00 Intro & three previous debt waves
01:16 The fourth debt wave
02:07 Countries in debt: Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Laos
03:40 Impact on education, healthcare
04:21 How did the debt crisis start?
05:19 China’s Belt & Road Initiative
06:12 Climate change and debt

Hospitals in Gaza

Two dozen aid workers from Doctors Without Borders made it out of Gaza Wednesday through the Rafah crossing. Andrea Mitchell is joined by Faris Al Jawad, Communications Manager for Doctors Without Borders in Jerusalem, to discuss the status of hospitals and medical experts in Gaza, the desperate need for fuel and the potential for more mass casualties. “Our international staff that have just recently got out are safely over the border. However, I think what we are far more concerned about now is the 300 or so Palestinian staff that we still have in Gaza, still working, many of them in some of the most dangerous areas that are being relentlessly struck,” Al Jawad says. “There are bombs going off very nearby. There are thousands of people taking shelter there, there’s no medication, there’s no anesthesia, we’re doing operations on the floor.”

Moment BBC reporter falls to his knees and weeps while reporting inside Gaza hospital