Debt gone by 2021!

[GoreBag]

All this clap about the debt in the US was oddly auspicious. During the Backroom's break, it was anncounced that Canada's conservative government has come up with a plan to terminte the debt by 2021, with tax cuts to follow. Huh.

[Lemur]

Color me jealous.

[Adrian II]

Color me jealous.

Is that all you have to say? I mean I am sure Brother GoreBag put this thread up specially for the Lemur.

Here's the deal, Canada. Go and develop your economy into the largest of the world, and I mean by far the largest, most unwieldy (from a policy point of view) and monstrously successful economy of the world. Build some rockets that take you to the moon and back. Win a couple of wars in the Balkans and the Middle East, get stuck in one of them for, say, three years.

Then come back and show us your funny little budget again.

Okay?

[InsaneApache]

Is that all you have to say? I mean I am sure Brother GoreBag put this thread up specially for the Lemur.

Here's the deal, Canada. Go and develop your economy into the largest of the world, and I mean by far the largest, most unwieldy (from a policy point of view) and monstrously successful economy of the world. Build some rockets that take you to the moon and back. Win a couple of wars in the Balkans and the Middle East, get stuck in one of them for, say, three years.

Then come back and show us your funny little budget again.

Okay?

Harsh

[Adrian II]

Harsh

Okay, I'm just joking. I was hoping to entice the Lemur, but I should have included a piece of cheese for that.

[InsaneApache]

Brie or Gorgonzola?

..or perhaps .......

[Ice]

Is that all you have to say? I mean I am sure Brother GoreBag put this thread up specially for the Lemur.

Here's the deal, Canada. Go and develop your economy into the largest of the world, and I mean by far the largest, most unwieldy (from a policy point of view) and monstrously successful economy of the world. Build some rockets that take you to the moon and back. Win a couple of wars in the Balkans and the Middle East, get stuck in one of them for, say, three years.

Then come back and show us your funny little budget again.

Okay?

[Papewaio]

Drive by shooting.

What is this government debt you speak of?

Even the Chinese owe us money.

http://www.budget.gov.au/2005-06/ove...verview_07.htm

Friday, 21 April 2006

Well, it is another important day today, today is 'Debt Free Day', it is the day on which the Australian Government will eliminate its debt. We started off in 1996 with a debt of $96 billion, we have been servicing that debt, paying the interest costs and we have been repaying it and today we eliminate the last of the $96 billion debt of the Australian Government. And that will take the debt monkey off the back of Australian taxpayers. Our saving in interest alone is now about $8 billion a year and that means that we can free up that $8 billion for more important investments – health, education – and it also means that after we have attended to important spending we can work on reducing tax burdens.

[AntiochusIII]

Drive by shooting.

It would've been twice as funny had it not been for the fact that I'm already half-American and will bear the burden of America's legendary debts.

[Adrian II]

Drive by shooting.

Be our guest, Papewaio.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Here's the deal, Canada. Go and develop your economy into the largest of the world, and I mean by far the largest, most unwieldy (from a policy point of view) and monstrously successful economy of the world. Build some rockets that take you to the moon and back. Win a couple of wars in the Balkans and the Middle East, get stuck in one of them for, say, three years.

Then come back and show us your funny little budget again.

Rubbish Adrian. Neither the singular scale of the American economy nor it's unique position and challenges have created America's federal budget deficit.

It is fiscal irresponsibility that has created the largest, most unwieldy and monstruosly unsuccesful deficit of the world.

Clinton ended his presidency with a surplus. Bush's series of tax cuts and profligate spending have since transformed it into a record deficit. Both had to deal with the same unwieldy economy. Even when granted that a great deal of that difference is explained by the economical boom of the nineties and the high costs of Iraq, the main difference still is budgetary discipline.

[Vladimir]

Rubbish Adrian. Neither the singular scale of the American economy nor it's unique position and challenges have created America's federal budget deficit.

It is fiscal irresponsibility that has created the largest, most unwieldy and monstruosly unsuccesful deficit of the world.

Clinton ended his presidency with a surplus. Bush's series of tax cuts and profligate spending have since transformed it into a record deficit. Both had to deal with the same unwieldy economy. Even when granted that a great deal of that difference is explained by the economical boom of the nineties and the high costs of Iraq, the main difference still is budgetary discipline.

No sir you're mistaken. He's Dutch and was refering to the Dutch economy.

[Adrian II]

Rubbish Adrian. Neither the singular scale of the American economy nor it's unique position and challenges have created America's federal budget deficit.

It is fiscal irresponsibility that has created the largest, most unwieldy and monstruosly unsuccesful deficit of the world.

Clinton ended his presidency with a surplus. Bush's series of tax cuts and profligate spending have since transformed it into a record deficit. Both had to deal with the same unwieldy economy. Even when granted that a great deal of that difference is explained by the economical boom of the nineties and the high costs of Iraq, the main difference still is budgetary discipline.

Oh deficit schmeficit. Ever since WWII we have been hearing the same nonsense about the U.S. going broke the day after tomorrow because of their - Oooh! Aaah! - record deficit!

Precisely because the U.S. economy is such a monster, they can handle it. They have a status aparte in the international economic system. All the world will help them handle it, for fear of going broke themselves if the American economy breaks down. Haven't you heard about the Chinese sales of U.S. treasury bonds? They say it's a prime investment!

As for Clinton, he may have reduced the deficit, but during his Presidency the U.S. national debt rose from $4000 billion to $6000 billion. You do the math.

[Sigurd]

Good on you Canada...

We got rid of our debt in 1994...
That is until we realized that being debt free not always is a good thing. We borrowed some for show and tell but have more claims than debt. In addition we can redeem our debt if we chose to do so.

Now to the impressive stuff:
We have canceled our claims to the following debtors (in NoK):

Burma – 1.5 billion
Ecuador – 225 million
Egypt – 168 million
Jamaica – 19 million
Peru – 48 million
Sierra Leone – 60 million
Sudan – 772 million

[Louis VI the Fat]

Oh deficit schmeficit. Ever since WWII we have been hearing the same nonsense about the U.S. going broke the day after tomorrow because of their - Oooh! Aaah! - record deficit!

Precisely because the U.S. economy is such a monster, they can handle it. They have a status aparte in the international economic system. All the world will help them handle it, for fear of going broke themselves if the American economy breaks down. Haven't you heard about the Chinese sales of U.S. treasury bonds? They say it's a prime investment!

As for Clinton, he may have reduced the deficit, but during his Presidency the U.S. national debt rose from $4000 billion to $6000 billion. You do the math.

I was thinking - are we talking about the same thing here? There's the federal budget deficit - Dubya's legacy to future generations of Americans - and there's the US trade deficit.

If we're talking about the trade deficit I agree with what you've been saying in this thread. There's no point in comparing Canada's or Bolivia's trade deficit with that of the US, indeed because of the size and status aparte of the US in the international economic system.

To cite an apt quote from, I think it was, Keynes: 'If I owe you a thousand dollar, I've got a problem. If I owe you a million dollar, you've got a problem.'

[lars573]

Colour me unconvinced. Tory pipe dreams, the lot. Debt reduction is all well and good but not at the expense of today. Does this "net debt" concept take into account the provincial debts?