“The number of emerging markets with sovereign debt that trades at distressed levels — yields that indicate investors believe default is a real possibility — has more than doubled in the past six months, according to data compiled from a Bloomberg index. Collectively, those 19 nations are home to more than 900 million people, and some — such as Sri Lanka and Lebanon — are already in default.”

-Sydney Maki, Bloomberg. A quarter-trillion dollars of distressed debt globally is threatening to drag the developing world into a historic cascade of defaults. [Bloomberg]