The UK isn’t Greece, it’s Iceland

Green Politics

Alex Hern presents a picture which says everything needed about the sources and problems of British debt

 

Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words:

Whether you look at international comparisons such as this one, or historical comparisons, it is clear that our government debt, though large, is not unsustainably so. Greece’s government debt is 145 per cent of its GDP; ours is 80 per cent (Eurostat).

Our financial sector, however, holds over 600 per cent of Britain’s GDP in debt, and as we reported earlier today, the Vickers report is doing nothing to stop that proportion growing. Icelandic financial debt hit 1000 per cent of its GDP before reality caught up with them.

We do have a debt crisis, but it’s not government debt, it’s banking.

(Chart from Business Insider via The Automatic Earth)

See also:

• Implementing Vickers won’t stop the next crisis – Josh Ryan Collins, December 20th 2011

• Cameron’s excuses don’t add up – Cormac Hollingsworth, December 13th 2011

• Trouble ahead for Cameron: Majority of Euro rebels were from class of 2010 – Shamik Das, October 25th 2011

• A damp squib or quiet radicalism from the Vickers Commission? – Ben Fox, September 13th 2011

• The Vickers report lacked ambition and lacks bite – Joe Cox, September 12th 2011

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42 Responses to “The UK isn’t Greece, it’s Iceland”

  1. Anonymous

    we only have a debt crisis because all our money is created as debt…consequently if you pay all the debts back we will have no money and the economy will collapse…we have to replace debt issued money with publically created money which will have no interest attached to it….then we can pay back debts without causing a crisis and free ourselves from the slavery of debt

  2. Jeni Parsons

    RT @leftfootfwd: The UK isn't Greece, it's Iceland http://t.co/bF7AuiTU #otmp #occupylondon Someone enlarge this & us it as a poster

  3. Myles Winstone

    “The UK isn't Greece. It's Iceland.” http://t.co/zLGWVO4U

  4. David Wearing

    Britain's problem isn't the government's debt. Its the banks' http://t.co/ASuwYQ6w

  5. Mr_Pukeko

    Britain's problem isn't the government's debt. Its the banks' http://t.co/ASuwYQ6w

Comments are closed.