I O U $310 billion
Stock markets had a scare at the start of this week with the US S&P 500 Index dropping 1.7% on Monday as investors began to get nervous that China's Evergrande, a heavily-indebted property developer, might not be good for that ~$310bn it owes.
For some context on how big that debt pile is; Apple, which has long had an enormous cash pile that it doesn't really know what to do with, currently has about $194bn in cash, or cash like securities that it could sell. So Evergrande owes more than Apple, probably the most cashed up company in history, has on its books.
But that comparison, like the comparison that many are making to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, is too simple. For all of its debts, Evergrande has assets too. At the latest count Evergrande had 1,300 projects spread across 280 cities — physical buildings or land that could help cover some of the losses were the company to be completely liquidated.
Investors certainly didn't seem as worried as they were on Monday, with markets holding steady, or even rising in some regions on Wednesday morning.
