The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates, according to the Bank for International Settlements, Bloomberg reported. The $30 trillion increase from $70 trillion between mid-2007 and mid-2013 compares with a $3.86 trillion decline in the value of equities to $53.8 trillion in the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

A Brazilian court has suspended the deadline for shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA to present its restructuring plan under bankruptcy legislation until a new judge is appointed to the case, the company said in a statement on Thursday. The 60-day deadline to file the plan was already suspended in January while another court reviewed a challenge to OSX's Nov. 11 bankruptcy protection filing. The new deadline will be set once the case is formally transferred to a new judge.

A Brazilian court has barred shipbuilder and ship-leaser OSX Brasil SA from joining its bankruptcy protection petition to that of Oleo e Gas Participações SA, the oil company controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista, Reuters reported. Judges of the 14th civil division of the Rio de Janeiro State Justice Tribunal made the ruling in response to a request by Spanish construction company Acciona to keep the bankruptcy filings separate, the court's press office said on Thursday. The decision was handed down on Wednesday but has yet to be officially published, the press office said.

Brazil's Oleo e Gas Participações SA has won a final court ruling to add international financing unit OGX Austria GmbH to its bankruptcy filing, a lawyer for the company said on Wednesday. The approval by the 14th Civil Part of the Rio de Janeiro-State Justice Tribunal addresses concerns that failure to include foreign subsidiaries in the bankruptcy petition could mean any restructuring plan approved by a Brazilian judge might be open to legal challenges in Brazil or abroad, Reuters reported. OGX Austria has sold $3.63 billion in bonds, the bulk of the parent's debt.

OSX Brasil SA, the bankrupt shipbuilding company controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista, is in talks with Cerberus Capital Management LP and a number of unnamed investors for a potential debtor-in-possession financing deal, Reuters reported. Currently no agreement has been struck between OSX and potential sources of the loan, commonly known as DIP financing, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said in a securities filing on Monday. OSX's focus at this point is what to do with three floating production storage and offloading vessels it owns, according to the filing.

OSX Brasil SA, the shipbuilding and ship-leasing company controlled by businessman Eike Batista, said in a regulatory filing on Monday that it was in talks with bondholders over the lease terms of an oil production ship, Reuters reported. The ship, OSX-3, is a floating production, storage and offloading vessel that is handling oil and gas output from the Tubarão Martelo offshore oil field east of Rio de Janeiro owned by Batista's Óleo e Gás Participações SA. Oleo e Gas filed for Latin America's largest-ever bankruptcy protection on Oct. 30.

Creditors agreed to the terms of $215 million in funding for Eike Batista’s Oleo & Gas Participacoes SA that will strip control from the former billionaire, the oil company said in a statement, Bloomberg News reported. The arrangement with the company’s bondholders entails subsidiary OGX’s issuance of debentures in two tranches, with the first $125 million expected in mid-February.

Funeral home director Carlos Bianchi's dilemma over how much to charge for his coffins goes a long way in illustrating the economic woes plaguing both Argentina and Venezuela, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Argentine government's currency devaluation last month, which helped spur a global selloff in emerging-market currencies, also sent prices soaring here. What confounds Mr. Bianchi's calculation is that he must use an unsteady and weakening currency, the peso, to buy imported parts for his wares.

Jorge Contrera checked a pair of soiled shoes from top to bottom, tried to buff them with his shirt sleeve, then paid 40 pesos ($5) for his 8-year-old daughter’s present. Before Argentina’s devaluation last month, he planned to surprise her with a new pair. “Do you know how I feel buying my daughter used shoes?” said 29-year-old Contrera, a welder who’s currently working as a delivery man.

Bankrupt oil producer Óleo e Gás Participações SA, controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, received court authorization late Monday to use its assets to guarantee a loan critical to keeping the company in operation, Reuters reported. Gilberto Clovis Faria Matos, the judge handling Óleo e Gás' bankruptcy protection filing, ruled that company assets may be used as collateral for up to $200 million of debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing, according to documents filed with the Rio de Janeiro state court of justice.