National debt going up £5000 per second

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

zenmaster wrote: »

According to the link the debt works out at £24.46 per citizen so why don't they just take 25 quid off everyone and pay the debt down?

An extra £43bn/year in the bank and debt at 0% GDP at a stroke!

They've used decimal points in the site when they should have inserted commas.

The (on the books official government) debt is £24,460 per person and £42,072 per taxpayer. The total liability, including PFI, unfunded state sector pensions, etc, is around 4 times higher.

Perhaps if we just presented the head of each family of four in the country with a demand for £100,000 (reasonable payment plan accepted of course) people might begin to grasp the reality of the situation.

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Quite.

And to be honest, the vast majority of UK debt is owned by UK entities.

We basically owe 70% of it to ourselves.

From memory, roughly 25% is owned by the BOE, which is of course just another arm of the UK state.

Around 20% is owned by UK pension and insurance companies, and 5% by other UK investors, including households, local governments, public corporations, etc.

And another 20% or so by UK banks and building societies.

Just 30% is held by overseas entities of any type.

And all of it is in GBP, every last penny which means that the BoE can always repay all UK debt.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

And all of it is in GBP, every last penny which means that the BoE can always repay all UK debt.

In an emergency, yes, with the [STRIKE]stroke of a pen[/STRIKE] push of a button on the printing press.:)

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

The debt is now [STRIKE]£24,460[/STRIKE] £24,461 per person.

But still around £80,000 per person including all the 'off the books' liabilities.

Cyberman60

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

In an emergency, yes, with the [STRIKE]stroke of a pen[/STRIKE] push of a button on the printing press.:)

If we want to end up like Germany in the 1920s pushing paper around in wheelbarrows to buy a loaf of bread, I recommend it !!!

As it is, under SNP/Liebore we may not be far off that in a few years time. :eek:

Generali

Cyberman60 wrote: »

If we want to end up like Germany in the 1920s pushing paper around in wheelbarrows to buy a loaf of bread, I recommend it !!!

As it is, under SNP/Liebore we may not be far off that in a few years time. :eek:

If you study hyperinflation periods the failure is normally political rather than economic: Government is unable to tax and overspends rather than that it prints too much money.

Having the SNP in power may lead to what some people call hyperinflation but I don't think counts (inflation ~10%).

antrobus

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

The debt is now [STRIKE]£24,460[/STRIKE] £24,461 per person.

But still around £80,000 per person including all the 'off the books' liabilities.

I think it's more like £50,000 per person.

At least the Whole of Government Accounts show total liablilties of some £3,189.1 billion as at 31 March 2014, which divided by 64.1 million people gives you £49,752 of debt per person.

And of course, there are signficant 'off the books' assets as well.

WOGA net liabilities are £1,851.8 billion or 111% of GDP. Which is of course, too much.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419973/PU1786_WGA_2013-14_Accounts.pdf