World Debt question

[cardiffsteve]

Just been looking oon BBC website about how much money certain countries owe

BBC News - Eurozone debt web: Who owes what to whom?

My question is for example

If we owe France 210bn euros and they owe us 227bn euros, if you subtract 210 from 227 then surely they owe us just 17bn euros?

Am i being thick (no comments)?

[VirginVegGrower]

You would like to think it works like that but rational thought and democracy don't go together much at the moment - do they?

[Mikey]

If we each had one bank account then that would make sense, however think of it like a swap shop. I owe you for this paper you owe me for that hammer. Its easier to total up each item than try to subtract lots of separate purchases.

[rustylady]

Confusing, isn't it?

[Mikey]

It is if you already have a hammer and decide to trade it for a pair of wellies and a packet of seeds with charlie. Then charlie decide he'll loan the hammer out to Uncle Sam to help sort out his oil leak, but Uncle Sam actually wanted a rubber mallet, so returns it and gets a credit for a tube of expanding foam.

Then you stick a fork through your wellies, and borrow the expanding foam from Sam, and as thanks you give a couple of seedlings to Sam, who offers one to Charlie who takes cuttings and starts his own nursery from it.

Are you following my drift here.

[veggiechicken]

Well, it makes more sense than the Eurozone debt. Thanks!!!!

[Mikey]

Well the Eurozone is a lot like berlusconi's garden. A large hot bed, steamy and full of double entendre's.

[veggiechicken]

Plenty of carp in there to get it that steamy. I see Berlusconi has turned to music now - will it be this Christmas's Number 1?
Silvio Berlusconi releases CD of love songs - Telegraph

[rustylady]

It is if you already have a hammer and decide to trade it for a pair of wellies and a packet of seeds with charlie. Then charlie decide he'll loan the hammer out to Uncle Sam to help sort out his oil leak, but Uncle Sam actually wanted a rubber mallet, so returns it and gets a credit for a tube of expanding foam.

Then you stick a fork through your wellies, and borrow the expanding foam from Sam, and as thanks you give a couple of seedlings to Sam, who offers one to Charlie who takes cuttings and starts his own nursery from it.

Are you following my drift here.

Clear as mud

[singleseeder]

It is if you already have a hammer and decide to trade it for a pair of wellies and a packet of seeds with charlie. Then charlie decide he'll loan the hammer out to Uncle Sam to help sort out his oil leak, but Uncle Sam actually wanted a rubber mallet, so returns it and gets a credit for a tube of expanding foam.

Then you stick a fork through your wellies, and borrow the expanding foam from Sam, and as thanks you give a couple of seedlings to Sam, who offers one to Charlie who takes cuttings and starts his own nursery from it.

Are you following my drift here.

Now, if only we'd taken cuttings and started our own nursery, we could have afforded our own expanding foam, preferably bought in the summer while the sun shone. In fact if we'd been more prudent, we wouldn't have stuck a fork through our wellies in the first place.

"Mikeywills for Chancellor!"

[taff]

I was with you till you stick a fork in your wellies. That's just painful and unnecessary.

[snohare]

That's just painful and unnecessary.

Yes - pointless, ironically enough !

Of course, there is a drastic way to alleviate much of this debt crisis. Use the concept of "odious debt" to argue that many of the transactions were actually illegal because the properties - be they companies like Enron with fraudulent accounting, or houses sold at an overinflated price to customers the mortgage companies knew were likely to default - were vastly overpriced due to criminal action, and thus the debt is "odious" and can be annulled.
Funnily enough, the USA first came up with this idea, back when they took over running Cuba in the 19th century; they wanted to renege on cosy kickback deals with France. It might yet come and bite them in the bum...

[Two_Sheds]

just mulling over world debt, bogus financial figures, teachers striking etc, came across this quote: "Michael Gove really does have a clue. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he's doing it because he's a malicious little turkey-faced turd"

made me laff

Those Tories are clever with numbers though, I'll give them that. I've had a little look at the teacher pensions figures, and although I don't understand accounting, it looks to me like their pension fund (which they pay for themselves, out of their salaries) is actually in credit. A lot of credit.
But this Govt has turned that on its head and told us that "we" can't now afford teachers' pensions ...? Huh? They've paid into the pot, and now that pot has been relabelled "public money" and given to ....who?