Government debt accounting

Economics Economics Questions
1

I have worked in Canada, France and New Zealand and I am pretty sure that there is a huge difference between “National Debts”.

In France and New Zealand, I never heard of department bonds or regional bonds. A quick search in google for Acquitaine bonds, Otago bonds, In France I never heard of any municipal bonds and the first google result for Marseille Bonds link to a NY Time archive of 1921.

In Canada and US, there is National Bonds, State or Provincial Bonds and Municipal Bonds.

Everytime I read financial articles about government debts comparison, it’s always about the National Debt.

This article is a good example : http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/uk-chaos.html.

That borrowing would bring the U.K. national debt to about 98% of gross domestic product by 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund. In comparison, the United States, based on current trends, will finish 2014 with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 108%, according to the IMF

I don’t think there is Scotland bonds or Devonshire bonds so, to have an accurate comparison of government debts by taxpayers, he should add every US States and Municipalities.

Does anybody know a documentation source that list what is included in the various National Debts and try to make an honest comparison between countries?

2

I can’t help you with a look for sources, but that is a pretty clever analysis.

3

“Does anybody know a documentation source that list what is included in the various National Debts and try to make an honest comparison between countries?”

“Honest” no, but for a good , dishonest comparison [assuming they even do any sort of “comparison” - I don’t know ,I have not checked] you might want to try the International Monetary Fund site, or the World Bank site.[6]

Or, you could just drink more beer and save yourself a lot of time [:)]