Here's something to watch in 2014: China's debt. Although the odds of a full-blown financial crisis are slim, they're not nonexistent.
The flash point is the burgeoning debt of Chinese localities to finance major infrastructure — roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, subways, telecommunications networks — as well as housing and commercial real estate developments.
The fear is that revenues from these projects won't be adequate to repay the loans, resulting in defaults that undermine confidence and trigger bank runs. This would surely rattle the broader global economy.