Business debt was flat, but local and state government debt grew 4.3% and federal government debt ballooned another 18.5%.
The Tories have warned that spiralling state debt could force the government to follow in the footsteps of Labour former chancellor Denis Healey, who approached the IMF for a bailout as the economy struggled in the 1970s.
Gross total debt is the sum of consumer, corporate, state and municipal debt plus U.S. government debt including that portion held by Federal agencies and trusts.
As a result of the tax preference for munis, the federal government not only forgoes the revenue that it would otherwise be collecting from the interest income, but more importantly, it effectively subsidizes greater spending and debt by state and local government agencies.
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While much of this debt is sold by the government for construction projects and bought by state-owned banks and enterprises, corporate debt is rising and represents more than 10%, from around 5% in 2009.
BlackRock said that based on its evidence, local government debt levels should be manageable even if state banks were forced to write down significant amounts of non-performing loans because of real estate.
Fitch said it was not convinced by the Greek government's plans to reduce state spending, saying that the state debt burden was likely to rise to close to 130% of gross domestic product and that further fiscal slippage could result in another downgrade.
Indeed, the State of California is said to have a major debt problem, but does anyone think for a second that Apple or Occidental Petroleum would pay higher rates of interest on debt solely for operating in a state run by a profligate government?
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The government is running up debt to support a popular but unsustainable welfare state.
In Italy, the high level of public debt means the government could not afford much by way of state support.
Strutt has invested his pool of winnings mostly in federal government-backed debt securities rather than in the insurance annuities most state lotteries buy.
By making efficiency savings in government and selling state-owned assets, Mr Brown said he could meet debt-cutting targets and he said it would be "fine" if certain programmes - relating to what he described as back-office and administrative functions - were cut.
This even goes for government debt, which you might have expected to benefit, given that the state's coffers stand to be swollen by all the tax money that Yukos and other big Russian oil companies will be forced to pay.
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While central government finances and household debt are in good shape, corporate debt is a worry among inefficient state-owned enterprises.
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Even while Governor Brown brags of a balanced budget, he ignores the off-budget pension fund deficit which threatens loss of government services and closure of parks and libraries, prompts municipal bankruptcies, and keeps the state deeply in debt.
We now have - the state of Massachusetts is now saddled with a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar debt over his government-mandated health care system.
With government employee pensions skyrocketing, high unemployment compensation debt and an increasing amount of taxpaying businesses fleeing the state, California is learning a hard lesson in fiscal responsibility.
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In a white paper this year, the government argued that Denmark need not shrink its welfare state, provided unemployment could be cut to 5% and debt could be reduced.
Printing money to buy debt from government-sponsored enterprises ( Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), which are now outright state-owned enterprises, is a far cry from making productive loans through a private banking system.
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At real GDP growth rates above the real interest rate on government debt (estimated by the Social Security trustees at 2.90% for the federal government, state interest rates are comparable), the PVIH of future GDP is infinity.
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