When does £1.7 million suddenly feel like not very much?

[Ted]

When you've just missed winning a share of £161 million by one number.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14161661

Difficult to get a grip on just how much money that is but the winners could spend £10,000 a day every day for the next 25 years and still have an absolute fortune left over.

[StBarnabas]

But a drop in the ocean if one looks at how much the British and Irish taxpayers are hit supporting the banks! All is relative...

[Ted]

Oh yes.

I see that the Italians are looking to reduce their national debt. They are planning to save a massive €47 billion over the next 4 years - which will reduce their debt from €1,840 billion to €1,793 billion.

Thank God, I thought for a minute there that they might be in trouble.

[StBarnabas]

The USA national debt is about $15 Trillion and about 100% of GDP. Japan has a 250% approx of GDP national debt and was till recently the 2nd largest economy in the world so I suspect of the same order. Of course the US is too big to fail. Should we be scared?

[Richard Owen]

Should we be scared?

Nope.

Because it doesn't matter.

If you're a person, like you or me, and we have dollars, we can take them to the bank and change them for Euros. Or Yen. Or something.

If you're the Bank of China and you've acquired $Tns and £Tns and eTns, then you can't change them for anything else. So, all you can do with them is buy government bonds in those denominations.

Expect for dollars. You can buy oil with those. And then the oil exporting countries buy US government bonds.

The world is different for those who have convertible currencies and those that don't.

Any country with a convertible currency can borrow and borrow and borrow because the people who hold your currency have to buy your bonds.

[Ted]

Well, until the oil runs out.

[dhaslam]

One of the  key factors is the ratio  of  public service pay to per capita GDP.   It is hard to get up to date information. The figures  from a US site  below on showing doctors  pay are from 2004 before things got seriously out of hand.     The countries who pay doctors and senior  civil servants over five times the average GDP, mainly out of tax revenues,  are going to have a budget problem.  In Ireland now it is about a ratio of eight to one  but in 2004 only four.       

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/how-much-do-doctors-in-other-countries-make/

[StBarnabas]

DH
are you alluding to something like the Gini coefficient http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient?

[Eleanor]

The first ever "Whole of Government Accounts" published this week are a bit scary. Total UK Public Sector Assets £1.2 trillion, Total UK Public Sector Liabilities £2.4 trillion, UK Public Sector Net Liability £1.2 trillion

http://citywire.co.uk/money/whole-of-government-accounts-the-1-2-trillion-cost-of-everything/a507939

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/13/whole-government-accounts

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/wga_unaudited_summary_report_2009-10.pdf

[clivejo]

What's to stop the oil producers selling in euro? 

Wasn't that why Sadam fell out of favour back in 2000, by selling 'his' oil in Euros rather than dollars?  No sorry, my mistake it was Weapon's of Mass Destruction !! 

[brackwell]

A £60.6 billion provision for decommissioning nuclear plants over the next century !   I wonder if they have taken that into account when commissioning new?

[dimengineer]

A £60.6 billion provision for decommissioning nuclear plants over the next century !   I wonder if they have taken that into account when commissioning new?

Yes. In actual fact you have to ask the important question "is it a big number". In terms of, what, 20 - 25 nukes over 100 years. Its £600 million per year, or £10 per head, or about 2% of the annual fuel bill. So, not a big number particularly.

There are other reasonable arguments against nuclear power (which I dont necessarily agree with), but nuclear power is actually the only type of power station that does have to factor in its decommissioning costs. 

[billi]

Are there two new Nuclear power station currently built in Europe ? One in France and one in Finland

Sounds  like a financial  disaster and  to be "spot on " in time is something else ....

If they underestimate  decommissioning costs as they do  for their construction cost and time  .....

I guess i am faster with my 3.5 ton Mini digger to built   pumped storage salt water hydro ideas along the west coast of Ireland

Just need a Sponsor i guess   and a new bucket /shovel

 

[Richard Owen]

What's to stop the oil producers selling in euro? 

Oil is priced in $US. Different oils (e.g. Brent Crude, US Light Crude) attract different prices. There are very few bi-lateral deals. Almost all oil is market traded.

There is nothing to stop an oil producing country doing a bi-lateral trade with a European country in Euros. Although the Euros paid will be calculated on an exchange rate against the dollar.

And/or there'll be hedging of one currency against the other.