Checking up on the UK's debt crisis

mitch

The numbers are so high as to be almost meaningless.
Work out how many people this could put on the moon and gob smack people.

Chris Rose

As the Economist points out, the country in the strongest debt position is Zimbabwe (click on the map to see). And so the way for us to solve our debt problem is follow Zimbabwe, which I have no doubt we will.

TrevorsDen

But the other issue is GDP - this percent of GDP is all very well but I have suspicion over how it is calculated and what is actually underpinning GDP.
One set of Armenian immigrants selling sandwiches to another set of Lithuanian hospital cleaners is hardly a sustainable GDP on which to base any debt repayment calculations.

Where is Fraser Nelson when you need him?

oldtimer

A very revealing series of tables. What caught my eye was the way the UK came top in the truly alarming rate of change for 2009 and 2010 (29% and 22.5%) compared with USA and Spain (both just below) and France and Germany (both c10% for each year).

Contrary to some opinions expressed here in earlier threads, the significant part of Cameron`s speech and Robinson interview yesterday was the unequivocal statement that public spending would be cut if he was elected to form the next government. His proposed measures to reduce the costs of politics should provide a useful indicator of what to expect in the rest of public spending. Indeed, he really has no choice to do otherwise so he might as well make a virtue of it..

Jim

As someone who has been predicting doom for so long, it looks like Labour may get to the election before they kill the pound.
Eat hat etc.
It's ironic that the only thing they've proved to be good at is fooling the financial markets, which just goes to show the average trader is usually drunker than I am.
I think I'll spend a few days reflecting on the fact that there are people who can drink more than me in one day, I didn't think that was possible.

Alison C

We are heading for 100% of GDP (government debt) and this is Not A Good Thing. I don't even know if PFI obligations (hidden debt) are included.

Spending has to be cut, and cut a lot. They have to be full and frank about it, and explain how it came to be with some simple diagram and the Truth. The gov spent too much on * and now we have to pay it back... this debt will hold back the recovery.

Moraymint

This sort of analysis simply reinforces my own view that all this recent talk of the recession drawing gently to a well-organised close is arrant nonsense.

Our political elite and the banking mafia conspired to kick the can known as 'global financial crisis' but a short distance down the road.

These almost incomprehensible levels of debt must be dealt with one way or another: either repaid or hyper-inflated into another dimension. Whichever way we choose, a lot of people are going to get badly hurt in the coming few years, starting sooner than most people think (D&G: please note).

When you throw in today's news that the UK's private pension liabilities have effortlessly shot through the £1 trillion mark, and climbing, you have to be bereft of your senses to imagine that the future looks anything other bleak.

Then, if you really want to send yourself into a tailspin, think through the implications of Peak Oil (pretty much here and now) and the UK's dismal energy security (blackouts a racing certainty within the next 5 - 7 years) and you begin to realise that the Armageddon crackpots may be on to something.

So, here at Fort Moraymint we've spent the past 2 years preparing for 100% family self-reliance. Sure as hell, nobody should be relying on the appalling joke that is our political class to steer the country through the storms ahead.

Oh, and finally, add in the fact that we've got to take greater carbon-reduction pain in various parts of the economy in order to retain cheap flights for the chavs' summer holidays and stag nights in Prague and you quickly realise that the politicos really are good and truly away with the fairies.

john miller

So you've been out of work for nine months. You've got one of those real old fashioned mortgages where the lender offers you 125% of the value of your house to draw down when you need it.

You max that out, along with your credit cards.

Then, in a moment of profound economic revelation, you decide to print your own £50 notes in the shed at the bottom of your garden.

You pay the bank with these to keep the mortgage from sky-rocketing.

But now the bank manager notices the serial numbers are all the same.

He calls you in for a little chat.

It's over, you cry! No need to print more money! Happy days are here again! I've got a job in a call centre, earning £80 a week! I'll be paying off that £798,000 mortgage in no time!

You and the bank manager break open a bottle of Krug to celebrate the appearance of your own personal little green shoots..

Major Plonquer

Solving the UK deficit problem is, honestly, not that difficult.

You may notice that on the Coffee House Home Page there is a small Java Applet (software) that calculates the UK deficit and the deficit per family. All you have to do is alter the software so it runs backwards.

Problem solved.

Then we can give Gordon Brown five more years....

Alfred T Mahan

Jim, I imagine the only thing that keeps the FX markets from dumping sterling is the confident expectation that Labour will be out of office in a few months and a Tory government will start behaving sensibly. So the closer we get to that, the stronger sterling will be.

The corollary, of course, for irony aficionados, is that any attempt to replace Brown, the architect of the problem, with another Labour leader who might, just might, win, would spook the markets. It's a funny old world.

Senor Frizby

I think Brown just needs a bit more time to follow his vision to its completion.

This major debt crisis and inability to pay for it (let alone every other quango and massive fat cat public sector pension) is all part of the roadmap to social equality and justice.

I have no fear that Brown will not rest until he can look Mugabe squarely in the eye!

Anyone know where my Chinese phrase book is?