World dept

[neil42]

As the world seems to be in so much debt to the each other and the banks,why dosent all the governmentsget together,cancell all the debt out,and then start everyone off with a clean slate.Just a thought.........
Neil

[VHG]

Silly suggestion.

If you were in credit, but your best friend owed you £10,000, how would you feel if he said "hey lets cancel all debt".

Same as countries, Germany are in credit, Greece and other countries are all in debt, why should Germany accept all debt being cancelled when they lose out.

Anyway, countires like Greece need to learn they can just carry on with individuals avoiding paying tax, or letting people retire at 55 when people in Germany and UK and other countires have to work till they are 65 and beyond.

Countries are often in debt because htey live beyond their means so need to learn a lesson. Letting them off their debt and they learn nothing.

[R1Geezer]

The world Dept? is it like the State Dept only bigger?

I think I'd steer clear of economics mate if I were you!

[rojash]

Foreign Debt as at 30 June 2010.

01: USA 14,300,000,000,000 = 95% GDP
02: UK 8,981,000,000,000 = 400% GDP
03: Germany 4,713,000,000,000 = 142% GDP
.
19: Greece 532,900,000,000 = 174% GDP

Oh dem lazy Greeks, why can't they be more like the UK or US?

[VHG]

Foreign Debt is only one measure of a countries "worth". The "Net international investment position" is also important.

http://en.wikipedia.o...l_investment_position

Germany is PLUS 37% for NIIP as part of GDP

The UK is MINUS 13% for NIIP as part of GDP

Greece is MINUS 83% as part of GDP

Only Spain, Ireland and Portugal are worse on the list on the Wiki page (hence the PIGS - Portugal, Ireland/Italy, Greece, Spain)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_(economics)

[neil42]

O i dont know R1,i couldnt be any worse than the silly buggers who are running the show now. :o)

[Teddy_boy]

Because once the debt was cleared , ssome countries would still borrow more money.Just like the millions of british people with massive credit card debts.If you cleared them all tomorrow theyd be out next day spending again.Its self perpetuating and sometimes when you reach a level of debt you realise and start living within your means.