In the past two years, the company has made losses of almost £600m as its debts ballooned out of control.
In Indonesia, for example, many businesses had large dollar debts, so when the rupiah plunged against the dollar, those debts ballooned relative to assets and income.
Lloyds reported a loss of £6.3bn, less than the £6.7bn of a year ago, but largely caused by bad debts ballooning from £14.9bn to £24bn due to loans granted by HBOS.
Those debts ballooned over more than a decade of recession, during which the island saw unemployment skyrocket and a massive exodus as Puerto Ricans left the island to resettle in the mainland U.S. at historic rates.
For a time, Mr. Geithner's name was reviled by some Europeans, especially Germans, as someone handing out advice while letting the American debt balloon far beyond European levels.
"Or they can do what they used to do," he said, which is to cut taxes "and then forget about cutting spending and let the debt balloon".
And unless our economic policies change, that debt balloon, powered by radical income inequality, is going to become the next bust.
But the crisis has shone the spotlight on mismanagement by Catalonia's own politicians, which helped its debt balloon to €42 billion of the €140 billion debt of Spain's 17 regional governments.
But the cost of the takeover, coupled with low oil prices, has seen the company's debt balloon from $26.6bn last year to nearly $79bn, adding to pressure to reduce spending and sell assets.
