This Cannot Be Good!

[Montagnard]

CIA ranks countries by Account Balance rather than Trade Deficit.


https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html

[SmokingJacket]

1. Hey, we have them all beat... by at least ten times!

:whoohoo:

[Hav]

2. .

I'm sorry but what do these numbers mean?
And what does it mean for the US to be down there with a number like 10 times worse, as has been pointed out by a previous poster?

[eallen]

3. Account balance is the accumulation of trade deficits & surpluses.

If I recall correctly. There might be some other term in there. But just as your credits and debits sum up to your total debt, so too does our nation's.

Those numbers might seem large, but as with a person's debt, it has to be measured relative to revenue. The US GDP is $12 trillion, give or take a few hundred billion. So a $800 billion account balance is like someone who makes $120,000 a year owing $8,000 in credit card debt. It's not good. But by itself, it's not enough to cause his banker to blanche. After all, that's not even one month's paycheck. What's a bit more worrisome is that we continue to accumulate that debt at a pace far faster than our GDP increases.

[Danascot]

5. That would be true if the money was worth something

Unfortunately the American dollar isn't worth nearly what everyone pretends it is. It's like the Coyote running off the cliff and not realizing he's in mid-air. You know what happens next.

[originalpckelly]

4. We're 150 wow that is a big number, must mean we are okay...

oh wait, that is the bottom of the list. EEK! THE DEBT IS DISGUSTING!!!