One sentence explanation on a U.S. sovereign debt default Maybe two. If there is n0 increase in the debt ceiling, the United States will not default on its debt, period! Despite the fear mongering and misinformation emanating from the White House and Democrats, the debt service on US treasury debt would be paid and non-essential programs and departments would be the places where funding would have...

Eurozone finance ministers took no extra action to quell the debt crisis at a meeting yesterday (6 December) and said they believed the existing EU debt crisis fund had enough resources to weather the threat of contagion. 

The debt ceiling debate in Washington! Instead of the current debate over what it will take to raise the debt ceiling, why not look to actually begin to solve the problem and start to lower the debt ceiling? At the end of the day all of the partisan wrangling in Washington over the debt ceiling will ultimately end in some type of compromise that does the American public absolutely no good. We know...

UK net public sector debt is seen to rise above 50% of annual national income over the next few months because of expected financial aid to the banks

The Obama administration is bracing for a political backlash when it issues national debt numbers showing federal debt rising by $9,000bn over the next decade

There is an anomaly in our society. Savings are taxed, debt is not - and there are even tax relief available in certain circumstances ( though mortgage tax relief has gone ). And now our society is drowning in debt - private and public. House prices are a clear example of the destruction caused by debt which enslaves most of our population. We see rising house prices as good. The government makes ...

Momentousness without momentum. That's what we're getting from America at the moment, as this all-crucial debt deal continues to stutter and stall. The main development in Washington yesterday was John Boehner securing enough Republican votes to pass his bill in the House of Representatives — only for it to be summarily tabled by Democrats in the Senate. What will follow over the w...

Now this is engrossing in a grim kind of way.  It's the Economist's brand new Global Debt Comparison feature, and charts public debt for the entire world ($39.1 trillion dollars, at the moment), while also providing details for individual countries.  If you want a sense of the debt crisis facing this country, then just click on the info for the UK across a few years.  ...

The Tories have been talking about "Gordon Brown's Debt", but as far as I can see, the fiscal deficit is not the problem. Consider two great debts: one is the public debt, the debt held by our government; the other is the private debt, the debt held by businesses and private citizens. Lets say that the public debt is £500 billion and the private debt is £1,500 bi...

What's the matter with deflation? It's nice to go to the shops and find prices have fallen. With no debt and a fixed income you are a net gainer and laughing all the way from the bank. Many people are on both earned and fixed income, as well, so things compensate. Of course those in debt find themselves with a higher debt burden in real terms unless their interest rate falls faster than the price ...