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

[Vague_Boy]

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

 

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

LINK

 

So, our wonderful financial sector...

 

Gordon Brown adviser says City all-important - and 'rest of the country can be turned over to tourism'

 

...turns out to be something of an albatross around our necks.

 

George Osborne might was well give up on trying to tackle our debt. Let's "do a Gordon" and spend, spend, spend until it's all gone.

[Chris_Sleeps]

It isn't sovereign debt, so Britain doesn't have debt of nearly 1000%. It's misleading to begin with.

 

I'm new to economics, but the comments on Business Insider are worth reading.

[Tony]

It's a stunning and sobering bit of research.

 

I do wonder how much of it Morgan Stanley is associated with.

[L00b]

It isn't sovereign debt, so Britain doesn't have debt of nearly 1000%. It's misleading to begin with.

Correct.

 

This link provides a better picture (and play-thing ) as regards UK sovereign debt.

 

Will make uncomfortable reading/perusing for '97-'09 Labour supporters, though

[WeX]

Correct.

 

This link provides a better picture (and play-thing ) as regards UK sovereign debt.

 

Will make uncomfortable reading/perusing for '97-'09 Labour supporters, though

 

who's idea was it to borrow more money to get out of our current problems, caused by debt?

 

labour managed to ride the wave of tory management for little more than 9 months before they turned around our economy and drove it back into the red. idiots! and some people still vote for them. bigger idiots

[Chris_Sleeps]

labour managed to ride the wave of tory management for little more than 9 months before they turned around our economy and drove it back into the red. idiots!

Labour had 4 years of a surplus budget, 1998-2001. If you want to criticise them then blame Gordon Brown for messing up in 2008-2009, but that problem was caused by the financial sector. Your original statement isn't true.

[sharrowman]

Correct.

 

This link provides a better picture (and play-thing ) as regards UK sovereign debt.

 

Will make uncomfortable reading/perusing for '97-'09 Labour supporters, though

 

Your charming animated graph shows defecit not debt, but it's still a lot of fun. The OP does not suggest his graph shows sovereign debt, rather total debt in the UK including domestic debts and the cryptic non-financial debt.

 

I only hope we can borrow enough to get us out of this mess......

[sharrowman]

Quit it with the labour this tories that - this partisan thinking will not rescue global economies. Political parties here are little more than TV faces for global corporations who's policy serves their paymasters first.

[Chris_Sleeps]

Quit it with the labour this tories that - this partisan thinking will not rescue global economies.

I'm not partisan. I've not voted Labour since they took us into Iraq. A mistruth deserves to be pointed out though.

[L00b]

Your charming animated graph shows defecit not debt, but it's still a lot of fun.

It's not mine

The OP does not suggest his graph shows sovereign debt, rather total debt in the UK including domestic debts and the cryptic non-financial debt.

The lion's share of this 'debt' (accepting the graph stats for a minute, here) is, by 10 country miles, attributed to the private financial sector, the hourly/daily/weekly/etc. operations of which know no borders. Brassing trillions of £ on exchanges every week, if not every day. Seems a bit meaningless.

 

Prepared by Morgan Stanley (which doesn't have any vested interest in propagating such 'news', of course, just like e.g. Goldman Sachs), on the back of 'research' to which no link or reference is provided, this chart seems to have about as much relevance as a chocolate fireguard. IMHO.

 

Labour had 4 years of a surplus buget, 1998-2001. If you want to criticise them then blame Gordon Brown for messing up in 2008-2009 <...>

So what happened between 2001 and 2008?

 

You know, while the UK's deficit was increasing year after year?

 

Not having a dig (as such), CS, as I have noted you are not partisan (neither am I). Only, as you rightly noted, a mistruth deserves to be pointed out