How U.S. interest rates could fuel a global hunger crisis
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2022
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While the U.S. government is scrambling to lower inflation for Americans, there’s a growing concern about what rising interest rates means for the rest of the world, especially poorer countries.
Read more:
It has been said that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold, and White House economic reporter Jeff Stein says in this case, it could be much worse than a cold.
“We're on the precipice of a tsunami of debt slamming into dozens, if not hundreds, of countries with rising interest rates in the U.S.,” Jeff said. “That could have tremendous consequences, tremendous humanitarian impacts, tremendous impacts for hunger across the globe.”
As the Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates again this week, Jeff explains how poorer nations could suffer from the U.S. efforts to slow inflation. Can economic policymakers prevent a crisis?
If you value the journalism you hear on this podcast, consider a subscription to The Washington Post. Go to washingtonpost.com/subscribe.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I first got interested in the story when we were in Indonesia with Janet Yellen, and they |
| 0:07.2 | sent us her prepared remarks, keynote address she was giving about currency manipulation, |
| 0:13.4 | and I read the speech, and I looked to the other reporters, and we're all kind of looking |
| 0:17.4 | at each other, being like, do you guys understand this? |
| 0:19.8 | Because I don't. |
| 0:24.6 | Jeff Stein is the White House economics reporter for the post, and he just got back from this |
| 0:28.8 | trip through Asia with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. |
| 0:33.7 | Furthermore, factors like external borrowing constraints, export price stickiness, shallow |
| 0:40.2 | markets, and other economic characteristics matter for how effective it was. |
| 0:46.0 | It had really complicated references to export price stickiness in very sort of jargon-y |
| 0:51.0 | macroeconomic terms. |
| 0:52.6 | Surgery markets in low-income countries may, in some circumstances, benefit from capital |
| 0:59.6 | flow management, and foreign exchange intervention alongside monetary fiscal and macro credential |
| 1:08.3 | policies. |
| 1:09.3 | And as I got interested in the story, what I realized the speech was really about was |
| 1:15.2 | the US and Yellen beginning to grapple with this potential debt bomb that's about to |
| 1:20.4 | go off in the developing world, and what the US will do when that moment comes. |
| 1:27.4 | While the US government is trying to fight inflation for Americans and lower prices here |
| 1:32.1 | in the US, they're worried that these efforts are starting to have disastrous consequences |
| 1:37.0 | for other countries, especially poor countries. |
| 1:40.6 | These are countries that have taken out significant loans. |
| 1:43.6 | And now, as US interest rates go up, they might not be able to pay them back. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.