Debt will kill the global economy. But it seems no one cares | Phillip Inman

Warnings from the IMF and World Bank have been dismissed. But even if they are wrong, a demographic crisis looms

The warning signs are clear. Debt is rising on every continent and especially in the business sector, which has spent the past decade ramping up its borrowing to previously unheard-of levels.

Last October, the International Monetary Fund said that almost 40% of the corporate debt in eight leading countries - the US, China, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain - would become so expensive during a recession that it would be impossible to service. In other words, tens of thousands of businesses, employing millions of people, would have gambled with high levels of borrowing and lost, making themselves insolvent.

Without higher interest rates, everyone can keep merrily borrowing