Guess Which Developed Country Has Debt Of Nearly 1000% Of GDP...

Business Insider ^ | 12/03/2011 | Joe Weisenthal

[SeekAndFind]

It's the UK, per this excellent chart from Morgan Stanley.

Image: Morgan Stanley

A few notes here:

• This chart is looking at all kinds of debt, not just sovereign debt. The UK's staggering debt-to-GDP ratio is largely due to the size of its financial sector.
• All financial sector debt is, to some extent, potentially government debt, since all governments end up having to rescue their financial sectors in the event of a crisis. That's what brought down Iceland and Ireland.
• And yet, for reasons we explained here, the UK is still seen as a gold-standard among safe-havens.
• By no measure does the US look  remarkable debt-wise -- even household debt/GDP doesn't look that bad. For that matter, Europe doesn't look that bad either. Their problem is not debt, but fiscal/monetary structure.

[samtheman]

But their government debt is a smaller percentage of their GDP than our government debt is of our GDP.

I think that’s the bigger issue.

[ClearCase_guy]

Europe is a country?

[Daffynition]

Equally interesting: Least corrupt place?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SeekAndFind.

IOW, it’s possible for gov’ts to survive after hitting 100%. What a relief. :’)

[KarlInOhio]

Compare those banking debts to banking assets. I think this is just a side effect of the Brits being heavy into banking and the way that debt is counted in this study.

It would be interesting to see if the Swiss have the same "problem".

[Wayne07]

Assume a lot of the baking assets are in real estate (disaster) and government bonds (looming disaster). It is a scary chart - way too much debt floating around. Seems like a bubble that when popped takes down the entire global economy.

[whitedog57]

This was discussed on Zero Hedge:

Can Europe Control Its Spending And Save The Euro (or Gyro)? Don’t Look To China As A Role Model For Economic Growth Either

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com

And

France Sovereign Debt Downgraded – Debt to GDP Breaks 90%! (But US at 96% Debt to GDP)

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/france-sovereign-debt-downgraded-debt-to-gdp-breaks-90-but-us-at-96-debt-to-gdp/

EEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jack Hydrazine]

Another awesome sign of how the UK is leading the West into the collapse of the abyss of destruction!

Time to nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

[Niuhuru]

I believe the US needs to rethink our alliance with the UK, for more reasons than this, but we need to be more practical about the real things that are beneficial beyond sentiment and the past triumphs we’ve shared. A lot of the problems, trend wise (pregnancy pacts among them) have been seeping into the US from the UK and I think we can do better on the world stage.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Remember the Cash For Clunkers program a couple of years back?

Did you know the UK had their own version called the Vehicle Scrappage scheme?
It started in May of 2009.
http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/business-sectors/automotive/vehicle-scrappage-scheme

The Cash For Clunkers (aka Car Allowance Rebate System) was started in July 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System

It doesn’t take very long for the Feds to follow UK government trends. It took about six months from the time the British government made it a no-no to call Muzzie terrorist a terrorist to the time the US government adopted the same policy.

I even found that the use of hyphenated surnames goes back in Britain to about 1850. Social trends take a little longer to make it here to the US but it is happening.

Remember when Obama blamed ATM machines for his fail economic schemes? Guess where those were invented? That’s right! The UK!

Time to nuke the island from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

[Niuhuru]

I used to admire the UK and thought we had a great ally, but I am beginning to wonder if whether or not we should be so close to a country that looks down on us, even after all this time. When we caught and captured Bin Laden, there were a lot of nasty comments about the US and our military and the fact that we effectively destroyed an admired symbol among terrorists (admired for his ability to avoid the US for so long) and all that hostility about other things, it began to make me wonder about them. They look down on our puritanism, but they have drunks careening through the streets and it makes me wonder about whether or not we should let them really infect our culture.

[Jack Hydrazine]

At one time the UK was a thriving, positive force in the world, but at some point it became more of curse than a blessing.

The more I read the more I find how the UK is leading the West into the abyss of destruction.

How long it will take before they get their collective heads out of their collective rectal region I don’t know, but in the mean time it would be wise for the US separate itself from the Brits instead of following them blindly into the gutter.

[shaggy eel]

,,, here's the real measure -

http://www.workpermit.com/news/2012-01-06/newzealand/record-number-of-new-zealanders-emigrating-to-australia.htm

[Reeses]

At one time the UK was a thriving, positive force in the world, but at some point it became more of curse than a blessing.

The UK invented socialism and have been in decline ever since. The creation of the NHS "free" healthcare insured the gutting of their military, industry, and their end. Democracy, or mob rule, is the root cause of their historic decline. The kingdom model worked better, at least until the royal class inbred to the point of Prince Charles.

[shaggy eel]

,,, here's another one...

http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/d0791b93/nz-had-record-net-loss-of-migrants-to-australia-in-2011.html

[Brian Allen]

Essential to having any idea whatsoever of just how precarious is once great Britain’s situation - courtesy of its much vaunted “The City,” is a modicum of understanding of the machination that makes the UK’s coming total collapse as unavoidable as is tomorrow’s sunrise:

Re-hypothecation.

Re-hypothecation occurs when banks or broker-dealers, to back the broker’s own trades and borrowings, re-use the collateral, such as hedge funds, posted by clients.

In the UK, there is no limit on the amount of a client’s assets that can be rehypothecated. In America, by way of comparison, re-hypothecation is capped at 140% of a client’s debit balance.

The recent loss of Jon Corzine’s MF Global’s One Point Two Billion Dollars of fraudulently converted clients’ money happened because the “collateral” that backed it on its transfer into The City’s Black Hole had been so many times re-hypothecated as to have completely disappeared.

The Corzine disaster is but a glimpse of what’s to come and what’s to come will totally destroy what little is left of the British culture and way of life. Of the British nation.

That is, the ten times GDP debt will all come due at once.

Any day now.

[Brian Allen]

.... Europe is a country ...?

Some of the Europeon Neo-Soviet’s “commissioners” would have us so believe.