Via The Telegraph: a world map showing the national debt burden by country around the globe:
Some excerpts from the related article, which quotes Andrew Wilson, the head of Goldman Sachs’ Europe, Middle East and Africa Asset Management division:
“There is too much debt and this represents a risk to economies. Consequently, there is a clear need to generate growth to work that debt off but, as demographics change, new ways of thinking at a policy level are required to do this,” he said….
“The demographics in most major economies – including the US, in Europe and Japan – are a major issue – and present us with the question of how we are going to pay down the huge debt burden. With life expectancy increasing rapidly, we no longer have the young, working populations required to sustain a debt-driven economic model in the same way as we’ve managed to do in the past.”
Wilson went on to offer his solution:
Mr Wilson said there was hope for countries with high debt burdens. “The demographic shift means that we need to look to more creative policy, including immigration and workforce expansion in order to find ways to pay down debt.
It has often been suggested that many of U.S. President Obama’s policies are actually authored in the offices of Goldman Sachs, which has been described as a “political organization masquerading as an investment bank”. Which if you think about it, explains an awful lot – especially when you see a Venn diagram showing the overlap of Obama administration members and upper echelon Goldman Sachs’ employees.
But then, since Goldman Sachs is a prime broker of U.S. government-issued debt securities, such unique subservience might be best understood as a show of respect for those upon whom you are dependent. Especially where the nation’s debt is concerned.