Top 20 Most In Debt Nations

[FlamesAddiction]

This list is pretty scary to me considering the issues Greece is having with its debt problems. Can someone explain the implications of this? I’m not the most savvy when it comes to global economics… I see big numbers and get freaked out. Maybe it is not as big of a deal as it seems, but if Greece is having debt issues, what is holding back the others? Also, if Hong Kong defaults to lenders at some point would China be on the hook?

Considering that 15 of the 20 are EU countries, could this issue in Greece just be the beginning of the end for them?


Country Name, Gross External Debt, GDP, percentage of external debt vs GDP

1.Ireland – 2.386tr, 188.4b, 1267%
2.Switzerland – 1.338tr, 316.7b, 422.7%
3.UK – 9.087tr, 2.226tr, 408.3%
4.Netherlands – 2.452tr, 672b, 365%
5.Belgium – 1.246tr, 389b, 320.2%
6.Denmark – 607.38b, 203.6b, 298.3%
7.Austria – 832.4b, 329.5b, 252.6%
8.France – 5.021tr, 2.128tr, 236%
9.Portugal - 507b, 236.5b, 214.4%
10.Hong Kong – 631.13b, 306.6b, 205.8%
11.Norway – 548.1b, 275.4b, 199%
12.Sweden – 669.1b, 344.3b, 194.3%
13.Finland – 364.85b, 193.5b, 188.5%
14.Germany – 5.208tr, 2.918tr, 178.5%
15.Spain – 2.409tr, 1.403tr, 171.7%
16.Greece – 552.8b, 343b, 161.1%
17.Italy – 2.31tr, 1.823tr, 126.7%
18.Australia – 891.26b, 800.2b, 111.3%
19.Hungary – 207.92b, 196.6b, 105.7%
20.US – 13.454tr, 14.26tr, 94.3%



http://www.cnbc.com/id/30308959/The_...Debtor_Nations

[Bob]

Where is Iceland? Supposedly their three banks (which were all nationalized) racked up a debt amounting to 1,000 years of Icelandic GDP a few years ago. I think the country assumed all of that when they took them over ...

[Ozy_Flame]

Glad to see Canada's not on that list. You have to wonder if there is a correlation between the debt levels and economic strength, especially during the downturn. Canada is coming out of the 2008 recession not too worse for wear. I suspect countries like the U.S. and those in the EU had considerably more damaging effects.

[Hemi-Cuda]

so who owns all that debt? is it all China?

[HotHotHeat]

IMO National Debt is not as big of a burden as some (especially in the media) might suggest. By no means are a lot of those number 'healthy', but if you look at them strictly as numerical values with a base point of zero, you freak yourself out way too much. "Debt affordability" is worth looking up.


Some reading that might help...

I think I've come up with a simple little number that could help steer the conversation away from hysteria, back towards objectivity: I call it the "TIT Ratio," which stands for "Times Interest Taxed." (I mentioned it at the end of my review of Walker's IOUSA movie.) It's simply the number of times our federal tax receipts covered the interest obligations on the publicly-held federal debt.

I like it a lot better than the debt/GDP ratio because it's more to the point. In debt/GDP, debt (a "stock") is just a crude proxy for interest payments because it ignores the interest rate, and GDP (a "flow") is just a proxy for tax receipts. In contrast, the TIT Ratio is a coverage ratio that directly measures interest payments and tax receipts (both "flows"), and it's more timely. It's similar in concept to "Times Interest Earned" used in private sector finance as one gauge of a firm's creditworthiness. Here's a chart of the USA's TIT Ratio since 1998.



http://www.optimist123.com/optimist/...ebt/index.html

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

so who owns all that debt? is it all China?

That's what I was wondering. It almost seems like there could be more debt than there is actual capital when you factor in how much of it is just interest alone... and these are just the top 20. I'm not sure how much, if at all, it drops off after that.

[Pinner]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

so who owns all that debt? is it all China?

Probably China, they are taking over the world by owning our debt and feeding us as much lead as they can...

[Azure]

Good to see Canada not on that list.

We did relatively well during the recession. Hopefully we can keep doing what we're doing.

[GreenLantern]

Ya it would be interesting to see who owns what debt for each country..

Are those middle east oil countries the most well off at this point with their poorest living conditions and incredible wealth?

[Byrns]

The EU can just print more €. (Just like the US can with $) As long as they don't devalue their currency too much...

[mikey_the_redneck]

China owns alot of U.S. debt.....not sure about the other nations.

The World Bank/IMF must be involved also..

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by Byrns

The EU can just print more €. (Just like the US can with $) As long as they don't devalue their currency too much...

The central banks print the fiat money........and then lends it out *at interest* to the governments of nations they are based in.

[CaptainCrunch]

I wonder if there's an international law firm that can deal with national bankruptsy

I think its a real growth industry, they'll charge you $140.00 to file the forms

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

so who owns all that debt? is it all China?

[Vulcan]

According to this our debt is at 33.4%

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1151927220090611

but here it says we are at 62.3% while putting the US at 60.8%

http://www.visualeconomics.com/gdp-v...bt-by-country/

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

Nice vicious circle there. I wish I could do that with banks!

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

so who owns all that debt? is it all China?

China actually has an enormous debt problem issue as well and may have a debt-to-GDP ratio similar to America.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aN94MF7BDx_A

China owns about $800 billion in US debt I believe.

A Chinese recession in 2012 would be a big deal.

Most economies, particularly in the first world like the USA, suffered enormous cuts in tax revenues in 2008-09 and can likely see those eventually restored in better economic times. Those lost revenues in turn help trim current deficits enormously. I think the estimate I saw was USA tax revenues dropped by one-third by the end of the economic downturn.

Today we saw an announcement of roughly 300,000 new jobs created in the USA which in turn means more tax revenue. Companies are again booking profits. Etc, etc.

Cowperson

[Bigtime]

That chart really makes it easy to see why the UK, Germany, and France are getting pissed off with these other EU countries.

[doozwimp]

Here's a pretty good explanation of how debt works.

[RedHot25]

Does this take into account provincial/territorial (or states, or cantons, or whatever else...) debt? I.e. is it just federal gov't debt or a truly national/overall debt? I have heard that we (Canada) are in a lot bigger trouble when you add the p/ts in.