Global Financial Crisis: World in Debt
- Thread starter Sadik B
- Start date
Digital Doctor
Well-known member
Something isn't adding up !
/incredible
/incredible
Morgain
Well-known member
It adds up all right Dig. It just ain't a pretty sum.
This page on the same site has similar pictures but in a European context.
Also has some very acute quotes - I understood these better than I did anything else.
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/eu/debt_piigs/debt_piigs.html
A selected quote:
This page on the same site has similar pictures but in a European context.
Also has some very acute quotes - I understood these better than I did anything else.
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/eu/debt_piigs/debt_piigs.html
A selected quote:
"Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave
them the power to create money and control credit, and
with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back."
-Sir Josiah Stamp, former President, Bank of England.
them the power to create money and control credit, and
with a flick of a pen they will create enough to buy it back."
-Sir Josiah Stamp, former President, Bank of England.
craigiri
Well-known member
It's all relative. A chart like this does little to put things in perspective.
For instance, they shout about the debt in the US which consumers use to buy cars and houses - but then don't mention that those items have a value which the debt must be subtracted from in order to calculate equity.
For instance, if I have a 20,000 car and a 500,000 house and have a 10K loan on the first and 300K loan on the second, I am in the PLUS column by 210K, not in debt!
Not to say there are not problems with excess debt, but fancy graphics and single interpretations don't tell the whole story.
For instance, they shout about the debt in the US which consumers use to buy cars and houses - but then don't mention that those items have a value which the debt must be subtracted from in order to calculate equity.
For instance, if I have a 20,000 car and a 500,000 house and have a 10K loan on the first and 300K loan on the second, I am in the PLUS column by 210K, not in debt!
Not to say there are not problems with excess debt, but fancy graphics and single interpretations don't tell the whole story.
3c
Active member
The problem is with your numbers (at least in the US), is that if you bought that car at the usual term/rates, it's value will drop faster than you can get it paid off (or at least real close) and that 500k house that you owe 300K on obviously was purchased before the RE market crash, where most RE dropped half their price, so you now have a house that is only worth 250K, in essence vaporizing your so called PLUS that you were so happy to have.
Oh, and your boss called, your department is losing 12% of it's numbers, good luck. Welcome to current America...
craigiri
Well-known member
I hate to say it, but those people you reference are/were either irresponsible or lead on by realtors, keeping up with the joneses (for you foreigners that means envy of your neighbors!) or other factors.
Of course, that covers a decent percentage of the country - maybe 25%. But the remainder still exist. Ask a car dealer these days how many cars are bought CASH and you may be surprised. Ask a realtor in many areas how many houses are bought cash and you'll get another surprise! In those ways, the crash was "good" for us as a whole. People are saving more now and being more careful. But we should not forget that many Americans, myself included, have always been this way. I had a good employee who made 30K back in the early 1990's and lived very high on the hog. Another made 100K (between he and his wife) and was in debt.
Greed will be the undoing of our country and the world. Although consumer greed is one of the reasons for the bubble, it took a more perfect storm of all the banks, government , etc. wanting to abuse those greedy folks to make the real crash occur. Our system actually rewards excess greed and debt. We have to move away from that.
3c
Active member
On that we are very much in agreement!