UK Debt / US Debt

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snoop51

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I realise we are intrinsically linked to the U.S.A but just looked at the beeb news. Apparently the Yanks owe poor little UK $0.35 Trillion (approx £0.23 trillion), we are in debt to the tune of £900 billion. Now surely IF and note it's a BIG IF we called that in we would be us sitting a lot prettier than we currently are.

I realise it's a lot more complicated than me lending my mate some money then having to call the debt in but please discuss and shed some light for a poor financial halfwit.:eek:
 
Time to stop lending money to the world I think, we should start to loko after our own before anyone else, if USA is so poor how can they still afford such a huge armed forces when we are cutting ours to the bone
 
I realise we are intrinsically linked to the U.S.A but just looked at the beeb news. Apparently the Yanks owe poor little UK $0.35 Trillion (approx £0.23 trillion), we are in debt to the tune of £900 billion. Now surely IF and note it's a BIG IF we called that in we would be us sitting a lot prettier than we currently are.

I realise it's a lot more complicated than me lending my mate some money then having to call the debt in but please discuss and shed some light for a poor financial halfwit.:eek:
is there a link we could look at?
 
Time to stop lending money to the world I think, we should start to loko after our own before anyone else, if USA is so poor how can they still afford such a huge armed forces when we are cutting ours to the bone

Because they keep spending money they haven't got and living off the promise of over-declared oil reserves...which they also haven't got.

If other countries stop lending to the USA, the World economy stops dead as they are the largest one.

It's complicated.
The good-old taxpayer lends money to the USA so that they can buy Jaguars and Land-Rovers at discount prices.
 
Interesting - if we called in our debts wonder how we would feel then when others call in theirs against us.

Protectionism was the cause of the Great Depression and needed more than a few Valium to cure.:D
 
Interesting - but needs a bit more meat on the bone. Is it structured debt, is it productive or unproductive debt?
But it is worrying - but not in the same league as some other countries. Of course China has a surplus - I wonder why ???:D
 
Someone stop me if this sounds too stupid;

Can't all these nations that are in 'debt' sit round a table and work out what each other is owed, pay it all back and start to untangle all of this mess?

For example;

France owes Spain £5bn
Spain owes Japan £3bn
Japan owes Britain £6bn
Britain owes France £5bn

Spain are up by £2bn, France are even, Japan are down £3bn, Britain are up by £1bn. Is this too complicated?

At least then, everyone has unravelled some of this mess.
 
Sovereign debt isn't just owned by other countries. Pension funds etc buy it. A lot is owned by China who don't owe anyone a penny. So it theory sounds good but it aint that simple.
 
I'm not an expert...but if everyone calls in their debtors all I can see is China ending up in a super surplus position....and the rest of us pretty much broke.
 
I'm not an expert...but if everyone calls in their debtors all I can see is China ending up in a super surplus position....and the rest of us pretty much broke.

And them with nobody to buy their products and a surplus that is valueless.
 
Interesting - but needs a bit more meat on the bone. Is it structured debt,

I'm kind of guessing they haven't just maxxed out the American express card.

Imagine the minimum monthly payment...
 
why has no one mentioned just how much the USA are in debt?

$17 Trillion

and a lot of that is to china in bonds that china can cash in in 2012 and thats why the yanks are pushing for QE 4 asap otherwise they wont be able to pay the bonds back and then china will own the usa

going to be an interesting 2012
 
When people say the US owes us £x, that usually means the amount of US govt bonds owned by British banks, individuals, and by various funds including pension funds. They hold the bonds because they want the interest that these pay. In no sense are these funds available to pay off our Nationa Debt.

When people refer to the UK's debt they usually mean the National Debt which is money that various UK govts have borrowed over the years.
 
why has no one mentioned just how much the USA are in debt?

$17 Trillion

and a lot of that is to china in bonds that china can cash in in 2012 and thats why the yanks are pushing for QE 4 asap otherwise they wont be able to pay the bonds back and then china will own the usa

going to be an interesting 2012

It's just Monopoly money, merely numbers on a computer screen that don't represent real money or real work but sadly, it keeps us all chained to the grindstone. A plague on all their banking houses. :mad:
 
It's just Monopoly money, merely numbers on a computer screen that don't represent real money or real work but sadly, it keeps us all chained to the grindstone. A plague on all their banking houses. :mad:

That is about as far from the truth as you can possibly get. The National Debt is real money that was borrowed by the US govt over the years to spend more than they raised in taxes. It will have been spent on schools, health, welfare, defence and all the rest. The debt mountain was huge long before some more was added to help the banks out.
 
Because they keep spending money they haven't got and living off the promise of over-declared oil reserves...which they also haven't got.

If other countries stop lending to the USA, the World economy stops dead as they are the largest one.

It's complicated.
The good-old taxpayer lends money to the USA so that they can buy Jaguars and Land-Rovers at discount prices.

Nobody is lending to the USA.
The debt is actually purchases in USA interest bearing Treasury instruments backed by the full faith and credit of the USA.
Most foreign countries purchase these notes because of the security of the US dollar.
The term debt is a bit misleading as it is not a loan, but an investment.
No different then any interest bearing deposits you have in your bank.:thumb:
 
^ just in case you're not aware of how it works.
When you borrow money from a Bank, the bank is the creditor and you are the debtor...because you are in debt and have to pay back the monies owed and interest.

The USA is the debtor here.

Thought I should explain as maybe Americans don't understand that bit.

If and when the USA defaults on it's repayments it is in the proverbial mire, unless the creditors feel like being benevolent.
 

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