Who are the world's biggest debtor nations? The rankings may surprise you!

inspector_monkfish

errrm....it was compiled by an American company wasn't it ..........?

purch

Who are the world's biggest debtor nations? The rankings may surprise you!

By Paul Toscano
Posted 20 Apr 2009

And posted here at least once previously, if not more !!!!

Yawn :rolleyes:

nearlynew

Degenerate wrote: »

They're just adding together all government, personal and corporate debt and taking no account of the assets offsetting them. As a consequence, small countries with big financial industries will naturally appear high on this list.

It is precisely the over- valuation of these assets that have brought the banking system to its knees.

You see, they were only worth that much by some miracle accounting techniques of the phoney economy.

Oh, I forgot.............. DEBT IS THE NEW WEALTH

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No surprise, Ireland is screwed, and the UK is heading down the same road, only big public spending cuts, tax rises and the lifting of rates will halt a march to the IMF. Gone then will the nice protective blanket that the government have ripped away from the prudent and the savers, to place around the indebted and mewers.

SGE1

nearlynew wrote: »

It is precisely the over- valuation of these assets that have brought the banking system to its knees.

You see, they were only worth that much by some miracle accounting techniques of the phoney economy.

Oh, I forgot.............. DEBT IS THE NEW WEALTH

Yes but just because valuation is difficult or contentious, doesn't mean assets should be ignored.

It's like saying, 'Right well I don't know what the word 'effulgence' means, so I'm going to remove it from the dictionary'.

lostinrates

SGE1 wrote: »

Yes but just because valuation is difficult or contentious, doesn't mean assets should be ignored.

It's like saying, 'Right well I don't know what the word 'effulgence' means, so I'm going to remove it from the dictionary'.

I agree, with the proviso that I suppose assets are of variable worth too.

Shiny? ETA: I googled: radiant. I had the root right, just not a good synonym.

CLAPTON

Clearly there are real problems with the current levels of debt, but to more or less assume all debt is automatically bad is unrealistic.
I doubt if there is a single significant company that wasn't foundered in debt and much of the subsequent growth was funded by debt.

SGE1

lostinrates wrote: »

I agree, with the proviso that I suppose assets are of variable worth too.

Shiny? ETA: I googled: radiant. I had the root right, just not a good synonym.

It's dictionary.com's word of the day!

Thrugelmir

Really2 wrote: »

Surely they are just taking in to account RBS liability's etc and not including assets.

Nearly everyone is in debt to a some extent but not including their assets on there is a bit misleading.

A bit like a millionaire with £30k on their credit card are they worth -£30K or actually £970,000

It's one of those "don't look at the numbers guys of cause you are better off in the US look":)

At least part of RBS's recovery plan is to shrink their balance sheet by 25%. So we should move down the table in due course.

Degenerate

nearlynew wrote: »

It is precisely the over- valuation of these assets that have brought the banking system to its knees.

You see, they were only worth that much by some miracle accounting techniques of the phoney economy.

Not all banking assets are mortgage-backed securities.