We all know how much the U.S is screwed with its massive amount of debt and obligations that it cannot possibly fulfill, but what of the other countries? People always refer to Japan having a much larger debt compared to their GDP then ours, but I know that the U.S’s GDP is much bigger. Are other country’s debts much smaller compared to ours, and are they held by their own people in the form of bonds and such while ours is getting bought by the Chinese and the Japanese? How can the Japanese buy our debt when they are in so much themselves?
I tried finding this on the internet, but not much is on it, except for our debt. I know our public debt is around 10-12 trillion, but all of our obligations are around 50ish trillion when you take in social security, medicare, etc.
What about the other countries? Do they have obligations similar to ours, or are they in a better position. I was curious because people always talk about how the U.S is screwed, but never really about other countries.
So, just looking, in terms of compared to what their economy produces, yeah. Unfortunately, I can’t find what % of GDP is government spending by country, nor can I find what the debt per capita is. If you want, the CIA World Factbook has populations by rank. Build an excel spreadsheet with columns 1) country name, 2) gross national debt in dollar amount, and 3) population. Then divide column 2 by column 3 for each country with results in a 4th column. You can then sort as desired and have fun comparing how much each person will have to pay.
Thanks. So i guess the correct answer for Japan is that much of their debt is owed to themselves (what about other countries?) and ours is more and more being bought by foreigners?
I think you can not compare debt on its own. I think you must compare the debt to credit ratio. Japan may be heavily indebted, but I would not be surprised if they are stil a net creditor on the whole.
Very interesting, thanks.
Can anyone explain the huge difference between the finances of UK and Germany?
That list is interesting. I am going to take a guess on the difference between the UK and Germany… Maybe it has something to do with the pound sterling being the world’s reserve currency before WW2 and the dollar’s rise.
The current German government was successfully pursuing a tight budget policy until the advent of the financial crisis. A 3% increase in VAT, among other tax hikes, and less overall government spending made this possible. Thus, there was a huge surplus in 2007.
However, that doesn’t eradicate the 1,5 trillion on-budget debt and the huge off-budget debt for the German equivalents of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. One good fiscal year doesn’t say that much, and 2007 was a lucky one.
The other problem is gdp. Every thing the governement finance is considered a positive economic transaction, cleanup from natural distaster is considered a positive transaction and the list goes on. gdp its self is bogus