UK worst debt to GDP in the world.

antrobus

hshen wrote: »

I wouldn't compare UK to Japan. Japan's debts are held by domestic investors who are all too happy with close to 0% return due to deflation.

Neither would I. It's just one example of a country that has a worse percentage of debt to GDP than the UK. Germany or Greece would be others.

Mind you, come to think of it, that's just public debt. If you were talking about total debt, then errm..... Nah, Ireland is still worse than us. And Iceland. If Iceland still counts that is, given that it is in fact bust.

twadge_face

Money is illusory; debt doubly so.

We just need to break the system in the style of the Fight Club movie, and wipe the slate clean.

asc99c

The cuts are not massive cuts yet councils are warning about dire risks to frontline services. Yet I know entire departments that could be removed without anyone noticing. And departments that need a staff of 6 because everyone refuses to work outside their job description (on current workloads, this means about 1 hour of work per day). My job description (private sector) just says software engineer, and the variety makes my working day a lot more enjoyable. Even as a temp at the local council, I had multiple pages of A4 detailing which tasks I should do, and plenty of people explaining how I didn't have to do X and Y as it wasn't on that list.

I think the opposition has to be a bit more responsible with discussion of these cuts, and some help from the BBC would be in order as well. We're spending piles of money that we don't have - continuing that path just isn't a sane option. Whether anyone else is in a worse position than us seems kind of irrelevant.

StevieJ

des_cartes wrote: »

You didn't really think that bricks and mortar cash machine came without payback dd you?

I have not got a clue what you are talking about?

StevieJ

hshen wrote: »

I wouldn't compare UK to Japan. Japan's debts are held by domestic investors who are all too happy with close to 0% return due to deflation.

UK actually depends on international money market and need to keep that shiny AAA rating.

There will be breaking point in Japan's debt structure, just not on the same scale as the UK.

Yes, good point, I forgot that we had a AAA rating not bad for a country with the highest debt in the world Everyone else must have AAA++++.

Radiantsoul

Most UK government debt is held by UK citizens.

Masomnia

antrobus wrote: »

Err, no it isn't. Take a look at Japan for one.

Or perhaps you meant the annual deficit as a percentage of GDP. The UK had a deficit of 11.4% in 2009/10, projected to fall to 10.1% in 2010/11. Still behind Ireland at 14.4% or Greece at 13.6%.

I think it refers to private as well as public debt. That's the only explanation I can think of.

StevieJ

Masomnia wrote: »

I think it refers to private as well as public debt. That's the only explanation I can think of.

And probably excludes assets.

Hank_Rearden

asc99c wrote: »

Yet I know entire departments that could be removed without anyone noticing.

Apart from those employed by the department. Which is the problem - moving jobs from the state to private is going to be painful.

sabretoothtigger

Painful for who, if theres no work done it improves costs to eliminate it. Travelling into work everyday and doing no useful work when there doesnt relate to capitalism .
Thats the surreal thinking behind QE and all sorts of government fallacy in many countries not just the uk, we have to appear to do something and be worse off for it ?
The chinese have a better excuse for it, the japanese are richer even with their disabling government but we cant afford the luxury of pretendonomics unfortunately, either it adds up or dont do it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOWITr4vUsQ

austerity is not true, debt is still going up

Yep thats correct. The grand plan is to increase debt. Same in greece, usa or ireland also I think.
The only countries that might cut are those who dont who probably didnt have the luxury of overspending anyway

USA total debt is 53 trillion I heard recently. 8 trillion of that would be mortgage debt but the usa government owns/created alot of that private debt also.
You can get 5% fixed for 25 years there


Im not sure gdp to debt is the most but we have the most QE to gdp in the world apparently

USA figures here, $170k per citizen compared to the figure he gives in pounds so apparently less - http://www.usdebtclock.org/