Dr Constantin Gurdgiev has taken a hard look at the numbers comparing the total debt burden of Nation States. Ireland stands out – and not in a good way.
What’s even more interesting is that in 2009 Ireland held 4.1% of the total debt of the 36 most indebted countries, while producing less that 0.37% of the same group of countries’ combined GDP. This implies that our economy’s dependence on debt is 11 times greater than that of the group of 36 most indebted nations. Put into household finances perspective, we have managed to borrow ourselves into a complete corner, whereby our indebtedness is systemically important to the world, while our economic existence is not. If not for the euro, folks, we would have bailiffs from the IMF calling in.
Having borrowed more than Japan and Belgium, we are also leagues ahead of other, much larger economies in terms of GED:
Think of it: Irish debt is
- x2 times greater than Australia,
- x2.5 than Canada,
- x3 Hong Kong & Denmark,
- x5 Greece
- x2 the combined debt of Brazil, India & Russia which have combined 2009 GDP more than x44 times that of Ireland!
And we are the ‘rich country’ that is contributing to international aid and relief for the HIPCs (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) and whose Presidents (current and former) are jet-setting around the world dispersing piles of taxpayers’ cash in aid and preaching economic reforms. Comical or farcical, folks? (link to article)
2 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Continuing the Discussion