In many cases there are better ways than debt agreements to wipe out your debt.
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Debt agreements have become the fastest form of personal insolvency in Australia. But in many cases, there are better options available to manage debt.
Paying the price.
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Not-so-fun fact: more than half of 18- to 34-year-olds are in debt, owing over £8,000 each on average.
Reuters
South Africa waits with bated breath for the 2017 medium term budget policy statement from new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, as it might reveal key signals of where economic policy is headed.
A Bitcoin (virtual currency) souvenir coin. But cryptocurrencies like this can be debt and equity as well.
MAXIM SHIPENKOV/AAP
Despite its name, cryptocurrency isn’t just money. It could also be debt or equity and so it should be regulated and taxed in the same way as other finance.
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The UK and US may avoid another crash, but many other major economies look like they are on the brink.
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Could the ‘magic money tree’ have been right under our nose this whole time?
Two men sit at the roadside in the hope of being offered work. South Africa’s unemployment is moving towards 30%.
EPA/NIC BOTHMA
The idea that South Africa must look towards the International Monetary Fund to rescue itself from the prevailing crisis must be dismissed.
Catching you out with the small print.
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Research with call centre workers shows mis-selling is an entrenched and accepted feature of financial sales.
Declining home ownership among young people has implications for their long-term financial wellbeing and indeed for the retirement income system.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
HILDA survey results show home ownership among young people is declining, as mortgage debt almost doubles for the same age group.
With slow wages growth it is hard for household to “delever” themselves.
Paul Miller/AAP
The amount of Australians in mortgage stress is the reason why wages growth and the labour market are such a problem - and a big reason for the RBA not to raise rates any time soon.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is thinking about reinventing the organisation model.
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Africa should be concerned about news that the World Bank is looking to migrate from the model that largely relies on funding member states to become a broker of private capital.
Has student debt changed because the purpose of education has changed?
John Collier/Library of Congress, Ermolaev Alexander/Shutterstock.com
About 44 million Americans are still paying off student loan debt. But it didn’t always used to be this way. As the perceived purpose of a college education changed, so too did the way we pay for it.
Unexpected increases in housing prices could have caused buyers considering home ownership to borrow more in order to buy a house, and encouraged homeowners to spend more through withdrawing the equity from their homes.
Dan Peled/AAP
Research finds higher levels of housing debt among pre-retirees are linked to them working for longer.
Demonstrators march against corruption in South Africa.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Reforming South Africa’s state owned enterprises should start with greater accountability and financial responsibility.
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A warning from Athens about facing political headwinds with a government barely worth the name.
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A dubious deal with the Trumps has sparked criticism of the World Bank, but attention should be focused elsewhere.
Banks are in such poor conditions that it affects Tunisians’ day to day lives.
Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters
Tunisia’s economy has been struggling since the country’s 2011 revolution. Corruption and bad governance within the banking sector is not helping.
Treasurer Scott Morrison called a press conference this week to comment on March-quarter GDP figures.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Treasurer Scott Morrison says Australia will “grow into growth”. Global economic conditions suggest otherwise.
Filipinos are among the largest group of migrants working as domestic staff abroad, whose lives are often far from easy.
Ritchie B Tongo/EPA
With My Family’s Slave, journalist Alex Tizon challenges our complacency over domestic workers. When does domestic work become slavery?
aesthetics of crisis/Flickr
Where now for one of the great emblems of post-World War II global co-operation?