Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Over overspending...

"The true extent of Britain's debt" is a matter of debate, Gordon Brown had been saying 37% of GDP, the ONS has it at 43% of GDP; however, including PFI, bank bail-out and public sector pensions it gets up to almost 140%...but it doesn't stop there:

"The reason Britain is in so much trouble is that our corporate and household debts are huge. It is the combination that makes us such a credit liability."... "the UK economy and financial system highly vulnerable when, as now, global banking and capital flows dries up."

"Here is the picture narrowed down to short- term debt (ie, due by next Christmas)" see graph below, full story HERE from Nelson Fraser at The Spectator.
G7 Countries - rations of short-term external debt/GDP, 2003Q2 - 2008 Q2

There are more gob-smacking numbers over at BOM (Burning Our Money) where they estimate - on the back of a fag packet :-) - that by 2013/14 it will be costing 100 BILLION pounds per year just to service the debts. Or if you want it really scary then BOM can provide for you...and this was 2.5 years ago! [Link]

These numbers should be on the front pages of every newspaper in the country and on the news channels and programmes of every TV station...well I can't imagine the BBC complying but the others should.

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2 comments:

Paul said...

Interesting you should mention the BBC because they have mentioned this level of debt twice in the last week - once on Newsnight and the other on BBC4's The World Today. When it was mentioned on Newsnight I actually said 'well done,' which was stupid as it's only a TV and I was on my own at the time.

Part of me actually thinks the world needs a big reality check and this is it. The U.K has had three periods of 'proper' economic growth as far as I can see and two of those were down to two World Wars, the difference with this recession is that there's no hiding place. China is just about to go into recession and they are under writing the U.S and U.K debts.

Span Ows said...

Don't worry Paul...I find myself shouting at the TV with worringly frequency. Still surprised how many people still seem to think Brown has done OK on the econmy.