Check out Canada's external debt.

Why isn't Martin shouting this from the rafters?


http://www.geographyiq.com/ranking/ranking_Debt_External_dall.htm

On the other hand, Haiti's is smaller, though not per capita. And is it just my eyes, or is Great Britain / United Kingdom missing from the list? They must be doing really well to have less than zero per cent debt. Are they now a creditor nation or something?

external debt was listed as information not availible. That does seem strange.

so it gets left out of these lists.

An economist may be able to comment better, but, looking around at various measures, I found one that sounds interesting - the 'net international investment position'. This seems to measure the net total of assets, whether stocks, government and company bonds, money deposits, or foreign exchange reserves, for the government and population combined. A comparison at the end of 2003 for 5 countries versus their GDP shows Japan having net assets of about 38% of GDP, Germany about 10% (though the 2003 figures weren't available then), France 8%, UK -5%, and the USA -25% - ie the US and UK are net debtors to the world, while the others are creditors.

it took me a while to find it. For the benefit of others, it's #120 in the world.

Of course, it's not the whole story, we hold a lot of debt internally, a side benefit of being G-8, we have the $$ to do so.

Still, I had to do that same old comparison with the US. Wow. I'm a big fan of credit, but an opponent of debt.

Trying checking out the CIA's World Book