Free Capitalist Network - Community Archive
Mises Community Archive
An online community for fans of Austrian economics and libertarianism, featuring forums, user blogs, and more.

How do you compare debt levels between different countries?

rated by 0 users
This post has 5 Replies | 2 Followers

Top 200 Contributor
Male
Posts 433
Points 6,720
Peter Sidor Posted: Fri, Sep 10 2010 8:50 AM

That's the question. All countries are in debt, but how do you figure out, which ones are really in trouble, and which ones can continue to heap on some more?

  • | Post Points: 50
Top 50 Contributor
Male
Posts 1,687
Points 22,990
Bogart replied on Fri, Sep 10 2010 5:00 PM

I wonder what the "Texas Ratio" is for the USA?

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 100 Contributor
Male
Posts 985
Points 17,110
Stephen replied on Fri, Sep 10 2010 9:36 PM

With statistics:

CIA World Factbook

World Bank

  • | Post Points: 20
Top 200 Contributor
Male
Posts 433
Points 6,720

With statistics:

CIA World Factbook

World Bank

They are useful hints, but also very distorted by their relation to the GDP. What other measures would you use?

  • | Post Points: 5
Top 75 Contributor
Posts 1,485
Points 22,155
Kakugo replied on Mon, Sep 13 2010 5:55 AM

Interesting question.

My bet would be finding how much of a country's tax revenues goes into "debt servicing". What's the most a country can take before defaulting becomes a serious option? 5%? 10%? With tighter and tighter budgets due to rising expectations and neverending "stimulus packages" this should be interesting.

Together we go unsung... together we go down with our people
  • | Post Points: 20
Top 200 Contributor
Male
Posts 433
Points 6,720

My bet would be finding how much of a country's tax revenues goes into "debt servicing". What's the most a country can take before defaulting becomes a serious option? 5%? 10%? With tighter and tighter budgets due to rising expectations and neverending "stimulus packages" this should be interesting.

Those would be indeed interesting numbers to find, if anybody has them. Worldbank does not seem to offer them for some reason. :|

  • | Post Points: 5
Page 1 of 1 (6 items) | RSS