Vague_Boy Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Addrew Castle, with all the economic facts and figures at his fingertips, said that government debt is currently at a scarily high £170 billion. Did the economist he was interviewing correct him? No. Those trusting souls munching their cornflakes this morning will go off to work comforted by the mistaken fact that we are only in £170 billion pounds worth of debt. Wrong Andrew: £170 billion is the rate at which the Government is growing the debt every year. The actual figure is closer to £800 billion and will be over a trillion by 2012. Still it's only money. We've created £200 billion out of thin air (quantitative easing), why not another trillion's worth of phantom money? As Robert Mugabe was once heard to say, "what's the worst that could happen"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eater Sundae Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 There's a little graph (just scroll down a bit) which shows our national debt as a percentage of our GDP between 1997 and 2009. Not a pretty sight (or site). http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/uk-economy/uk-national-debt/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 ...The actual figure is closer to £800 billion and will be over a trillion by 2012... That depends on what you include. If you agree that the requirement to pay for all the PFI investments and the requirement to pay future state pensions is a 'debt' then the figure is already well over £1 Trillion. Still it's only money. We've created £200 billion out of thin air (quantitative easing), why not another trillion's worth of phantom money? As Robert Mugabe was once heard to say, "what's the worst that could happen"? As you say, it's only money. But if you haven't got any, or if people think the money you've got is worthless, then you can't buy anything from other people. More than 40% of the food you eat is bought from other people. Do you think a 100 trillion billion Zimbabwean dollar note will be worth as much as a 100 trillion billion UK pound note? Will it buy you a pound of spuds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 And if it does, will the guy who sells you potatoes by the Lb go to jail for doing so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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