Global debt hits all-time high of $184,000,000,000,000

[Organ Morgan.]

Each person alive today owes on average $86,000 (£69,000) according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who estimate total global debt totals 184 trillion dollars. Britain's national debt, that excludes household and corporate debt, stands at £1,780 billion quid which according to my calculator means every Briton's share is £26,000 each. These figures are so huge and abstract that they're rarely discussed. Who's the major creditors for this sea of debt, does anyone know?

Debt Worldwide Hits Record $184 Trillion, or $86,000 Per Person: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...000-per-person

Global debt hits all-time high of $184,000,000,000,000: https://www.rt.com/business/446526-g...t-hits-record/

[Rogersblue]

What a load of crap, they owe me, for all the bullshit taxes they've ripped me off for 40 years, with fake global warming crap, eat shit deep state tw@ts

[Organ Morgan.]

I'll need to check, but I'm sure I read recently that it cost the UK £52 billion this year servicing the national debt. That would be £16 billion more than what was spent on the entire defence budget.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

I'll need to check, but I'm sure I read recently that it cost the UK £52 billion this year servicing the national debt. That would be £16 billion more than what was spent on the entire defence budget.

I am neither of the left wing nor the right but I do sometimes wonder about many people railing against so-called 'austerity' measures without taking into account rising national debt too.

[Wales-Bales]

I am neither of the left wing nor the right but I do sometimes wonder about many people railing against so-called 'austerity' measures without taking into account rising national debt too.

There are enough studies showing that austerity is harmful for an economy, in fact, the PM claims that she has ended it.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

I am neither of the left wing nor the right but I do sometimes wonder about many people railing against so-called 'austerity' measures without taking into account rising national debt too.

I'm all for austerity as a tool for servicing our national debt as long as those who have the most, pay their share.

Sadly, austerity has meant that people too ill to work have been found fit for work by private companies whose job it is to cut the numbers on disability benefits, then found dead.

Austerity has resulted in the bedroom tax, where people with spare bedrooms are told to move to smaller dwellings to free up larger housing for those who need it. Sadly, the number of smaller accommodations available is massively less than required, meaning people can't move to smaller places and are forced to pay the bedroom tax.

Austerity has resulted in zero-hours contracts being more widely given. The ONS has recently said that anyone working one hour per fortnight on these contracts is classed as employed. It gives the illusion that less people are unemployed, though people are being forced into jobs on these contracts or JSA will be stopped, yet many have been made worse off by zero hours contracts that pay less than JSA.

Ok, that might all be fair enough in the name of austerity, so let's have a look at the other end of the rectum.

Income tax for the highest earners cut. There is an argument that if high earners aren't forced to pay too much, they'll be less inclined to avoid tax. Try doing that if you're earning a low wage. Whether the tax cut is successful in retrieving more tax is open to debate. For me, the likelihood is that it isn't. If you can dodge tax, you will regardless of your income tax level.

That leads nicely to tax evasion and avoidance. This costs the economy far more than benefit fraud and overseas aid, and is worth significantly more the exchequer than the paltry amounts saved by screwing the disabled and unemployed. What is Britain doing to rectify this? Reducing HMRC staff so less are able to moniter and chase those guilty. Appealing to the EU to make Britain exempt from EU legislation on tax avoidance, progressing to potentially leaving the EU to avoid this legislation.

In short, austerity has been specifically designed to screw the worst off in this country while allowing the most wealthy to make even more money and avoid tax.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

I'm all for austerity as a tool for servicing our national debt as long as those who have the most, pay their share.

Sadly, austerity has meant that people too ill to work have been found fit for work by private companies whose job it is to cut the numbers on disability benefits, then found dead.

Austerity has resulted in the bedroom tax, where people with spare bedrooms are told to move to smaller dwellings to free up larger housing for those who need it. Sadly, the number of smaller accommodations available is massively less than required, meaning people can't move to smaller places and are forced to pay the bedroom tax.

Austerity has resulted in zero-hours contracts being more widely given. The ONS has recently said that anyone working one hour per fortnight on these contracts is classed as employed. It gives the illusion that less people are unemployed, though people are being forced into jobs on these contracts or JSA will be stopped, yet many have been made worse off by zero hours contracts that pay less than JSA.

Ok, that might all be fair enough in the name of austerity, so let's have a look at the other end of the rectum.

Income tax for the highest earners cut. There is an argument that if high earners aren't forced to pay too much, they'll be less inclined to avoid tax. Try doing that if you're earning a low wage. Whether the tax cut is successful in retrieving more tax is open to debate. For me, the likelihood is that it isn't. If you can dodge tax, you will regardless of your income tax level.

That leads nicely to tax evasion and avoidance. This costs the economy far more than benefit fraud and overseas aid, and is worth significantly more the exchequer than the paltry amounts saved by screwing the disabled and unemployed. What is Britain doing to rectify this? Reducing HMRC staff so less are able to moniter and chase those guilty. Appealing to the EU to make Britain exempt from EU legislation on tax avoidance, progressing to potentially leaving the EU to avoid this legislation.

In short, austerity has been specifically designed to screw the worst off in this country while allowing the most wealthy to make even more money and avoid tax.

Rather you than me.

[Organ Morgan.]

Yeah, no-one expects the principal owed to be paid. They, the creditors (whomever they are), are content to collect the interest on what they lent. Spending £16 billion more on that than defending the nation seems alarming, but is it? It can't be for the government for while they preach austerity at home, this year it gave away £13.4 billion in Overseas Aid. Some context for that £13.4 billion: it is over four times the £3.2 billion it cost to to run the entire British prison estate in 2017, and less than £1 billion of that £13.4 billion would pay the annual wages of the 21,000 police officers who have been discarded over the last decade, the same officers who the country was supposedly unable to afford.

[Organ Morgan.]

Looking at the official data, there isn't a country worldwide that isn't in debt. Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc, moneybags countries one and all carry vast sums in public debt.

I asked in the opening post who are the creditors? Anyone care to guess?

[Eric Cartman]

I am neither of the left wing nor the right but I do sometimes wonder about many people railing against so-called 'austerity' measures without taking into account rising national debt too.

The economic arguments used to justify austerity were facile for instance by comparing a countries economy to a household budget.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

The economic arguments used to justify austerity were facile for instance by comparing a countries economy to a household budget.

Surely austerity of some description was required to counter the ever-rising national debt regardless of which party is in power. I would not align myself with either the Conservatives or the Labour party, by the way.

[Eric Cartman]

Surely austerity of some description was required to counter the ever-rising national debt regardless of which party is in power. I would not align myself with either the Conservatives or the Labour party, by the way.

Well austerity was sold to the public as cutting waste. I agree with should be doing that but when you look back at what has been cut it is clear that this wasn't the motivation.

The deficit became unmanageable because of a contraction in the economy and not, as it is claimed, we were spending too much. Labour made the mistake of not being honest about the cost of implementing their programme.

I suppose if I was to use my very own facile, but more appropriate, household budget comparison. If you had your hours cut at work a reasonable reaction would be to stop eating expensive food (cut waste) and maybe retrain in order to look for full time work (invest in growth). It wouldn't be a good idea to stop eating entirely or get rid of your car - that isn't cutting waste and it will harm your chances of 'recovery'.

[life on mars]

All this global debt stuff is just a viewpoint , it's not actual money its a projection, based on a unsubstantiated set of figures and guess ,on what planet would any business or government really reveal what their real values are, that would make them the worst poker player ever.

The reality is far removed from posts like this,which are purely soundbites positioned for ones political gain and view .

[Organ Morgan.]

The World debt figure is produced by the International Monetary Fund. The British public debt figure is courtesy of the Office for National Statistics. It's not like you to question officialdom. Or is it you prefer to... see picture.

[life on mars]

The World debt figure is produced by the International Monetary Fund. The British public debt figure is courtesy of the Office for National Statistics. It's not like you to question officialdom. Or is it you prefer to... see picture.

I repeat (All this global debt stuff is just a viewpoint , it's not actual money its a projection) .

I love the fact everyone enjoys the outputs of globalization and hates it as well ,the whole anti western thing is hypnotic ,where one see's folk typing away on the devices and PC's ,using mobile phones , driving nice cars , watching premium paid TV ,watching footballers earn weekly as much as some do in a year , yep, we are all wallowing in the fat of the system , provided by the evil empire of capitalism /globalization /american influences ( not forgetting those nasty Israelis, I'm sure there involved in some evil plot or the route of all our problems ).

Surely there is an island where one could escape too , it would greatly assist with the stress of having to worry and type about all this dreadful world we live in, its not helping ones health having to worry so .

Now that is a real head in the sand moment

[Eric Cartman]

I repeat (All this global debt stuff is just a viewpoint , it's not actual money its a projection)

You are saying the UK national debt is a projection? Can you explain what you mean?

[life on mars]

You are saying the UK national debt is a projection? Can you explain what you mean?

Well people look at trends and analysis and predict , the deficit is the difference between government's income and spending, however there as so many other factors to consider that probably dont get revealed and never will , debt is confusing government's liquid assets have to be considered and some of them we will never know about ,you then have the deficit whcih is the balance of what the government spends or receives ,putting it in surplus or not .

Then you have the undeclared economy .

Hey why am I telling you this you know anyway and I'm sure your about to tell me more or boringly ask me to explain myself so you pick away at it behind your keyboard .

Hope you it make it to the game Saturday its a biggy , its sure to be fun on this footy board leading up to it and after ,with many footy like comments ,there is a world of fun out there .

[Eric Cartman]

Well people look at trends and analysis and predict , the deficit is the difference between government's income and spending, however there as so many other factors to consider that probably dont get revealed and never will , debt is confusing government's liquid assets have to be considered and some of them we will never know about ,you then have the deficit whcih is the balance of what the government spends or receives ,putting it in surplus or not .

Then you have the undeclared economy .

Hey why am I telling you this you know anyway and I'm sure your about to tell me more or boringly ask me to explain myself so you pick away at it behind your keyboard .

Hope you it make it to the game Saturday its a biggy , its sure to be fun on this footy board leading up to it and after ,with many footy like comments ,there is a world of fun out there .

Why do you get so defensive?

You have done quite a good job of explaining what a projection is but not why the national debt is a projection. It specifically doesn't include future liabilities like pensions as far as I am aware and is simply a record of what we already owe.

government's liquid assets have to be considered and some of them we will never know about

Really struggling with this bit tbh. What type of things are you referring to?

[Organ Morgan.]

I repeat (All this global debt stuff is just a viewpoint , it's not actual money its a projection) .

I love the fact everyone enjoys the outputs of globalization and hates it as well ,the whole anti western thing is hypnotic ,where one see's folk typing away on the devices and PC's ,using mobile phones , driving nice cars , watching premium paid TV ,watching footballers earn weekly as much as some do in a year , yep, we are all wallowing in the fat of the system , provided by the evil empire of capitalism /globalization /american influences ( not forgetting those nasty Israelis, I'm sure there involved in some evil plot or the route of all our problems ).

Surely there is an island where one could escape too , it would greatly assist with the stress of having to worry and type about all this dreadful world we live in, its not helping ones health having to worry so .

Now that is a real head in the sand moment

You were correct with 'it's not actual money' but not for the reason you stated.

Money makes the world go round, someone once said. It's really been oil for a very long time. The most important commodity by a light year. The price of WTI crude oil has declined 10% in the past two days and has fallen 38% in 11 weeks. It's always a leading indicator for good or bad times ahead.

[Organ Morgan.]

Elements of the black economy (prostitution, illegal drugs, etc) have been included in the UK's GDP figure for the past several years. Why? To comply with EU rules, of course.

[Organ Morgan.]

UK national debt number is a little misleading. It's at its highest in pounds and pence but set against GDP at 85% it's no big deal as it's been much higher in the past (237% in 1946). The Yanks' is 108% and their spending continues to increase faster than Obama could manage and he doubled their debt in absolute terms over his 8 years. Actually, their debt has doubled every 8 years since 1980.

[Organ Morgan.]

Market malaise continued today. Every stock index down, mostly between 1%-2%, oil price fell again, now minus 40% in less than three months and our old favourite, the world's most dangerous financial institution, Deutsche Bank's share price was slammed for 7% of its value to finish at a pitiful €7 even.

[Wales-Bales]

It's coming and it's going to be brutal. I feel genuinely sorry for anybody who still has a mortgage, is in insecure employment, or is dependent upon the state.

[Organ Morgan.]

It's coming and it's going to be brutal. I feel genuinely sorry for anybody who still has a mortgage, is in insecure employment, or is dependent upon the state.

Kinell, that's everyone, isn't it?

I posted an article from Brandon Smith quite recently. His latest offering is below. It's a long read but you might find it interesting.

The Psychological Warfare Behind Economic Collapse: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/3...nomic-collapse

Thursday, 20 December 2018 14:05 Brandon Smith

The concept of using the economy as a weapon is not an alien one to most people. Generally, we understand the nature of feudalism and how various groups can be herded onto centralized plantations to be exploited for their labor. Some people see this as a consequence of “capitalism,” and others see it as an extension of socialism/communism. Sadly, many people wrongly assume that one is a solution to the other — meaning they think that crony capitalism is a solution to communist centralization or that communism is a solution to the corruption of crony capitalism. The reality is that this is just another false paradigm.

What is most disturbing is that the majority of the public have no grasp whatsoever of the true solution to the problem of corrupt or totalitarian economies: free markets.

Free markets have not existed within the global economy on a large scale for at least the past 100 years. The rise of central banking has eroded all vestiges of freedom in production and trade. Crony capitalism with its focus on corporate power and monopoly has nothing to do with free markets, despite the arguments of rather naive socialists who blame “free markets” for the problems of the world. If you ever hear anyone making this claim, I suggest you remind them that corporations and their advantages are a creation of governments.

The protections of corporate personhood, limited liability, unfair taxation of small business competition and legislation shielding corporations from civil lawsuits are all generated by government. Therefore, corporations and crony capitalism are much more a product of socialist-style systems, not free markets. In a true free market devoid of constant government interference and favoritism, corporations could not exist and would be obliterated over time by the competitive environment. And without limited liability, business moguls that violate the rule of law and harm others would be subject to personal prosecution and jail time instead of simply paying a fine. The cost/benefit ratio for corrupt business would disappear and thus corrupt businesses would flounder.

At the very core of the combination of corporate power and government protection (what some might say is the classical definition of fascism), rest the central banks, globalist institutions and the banking elites behind them. Central banks are the stewards of the various plantations (nations) and oversee the exploitation of these societies and their labor. Major globalist constructs like the IMF or the Bank for International Settlements are the policy makers for the national central banks. They hand down the strategy, and the central banks implement that strategy in concert. At the top of the pyramid sit the round table groups and the international bankers themselves, reaping the rewards of the cycle of theft.

As noted scholar, globalist insider and mentor to Bill Clinton, Carroll Quigley wrote in his book Tragedy And Hope:

“The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank … sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.”

This is an easy notion to understand, I think. That is to say, the idea of oligarchs, the 1% if you will, controlling the other 99% through economic leverage is something that most people can agree exists, whether they identify with the political Right or the political Left. They may only have a vague notion of the facts behind this conspiracy, but they have seen it in action in their daily lives and they know it is real. Here is where most of them start to lose sight of the bigger picture, though…

Many see the conspiracy as merely a product of profit motive. That is to say, they don’t see it as a conscious and organized effort so much as unconsciously motivated greed. This reminds me of the most famous line from the movie The Usual Suspects:

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn’t exist.”

All the evidence overwhelmingly assures us that the conspiracy is fully conscious, organized and deliberate. It is not an ugly or random byproduct of “profit motive.” This is absurd when you consider the amount of coordination that is required or the number of think tanks and secretive conferences that occur yearly, from the Council on Foreign Relations, to Tavistock, to the Trilateral Commission, to the Brookings Institute, to Davos, to Bilderberg and to even weirder circles like Bohemian Grove. These are very real centers of power that can have far reaching influence in our daily lives.

To ignore this and reduce it all down to a “natural” extension of greed is to stupidly rest one’s soft spongy head in the jaws of organized evil while pretending you can’t smell the stench of its gingivitis.

The control mechanisms of the globalists are far more complex though than simply exploiting the flow of money or the accumulation of debt. Numerous liberty activists that have accepted the reality of institutionalized control of the economy still refuse to acknowledge another very real control mechanism — the use of economic collapse. I’m not sure why this idea is taken as farfetched by people who are already versed in the facts behind globalism. Their biases just won’t allow them to look at the environment objectively and see the usefulness of collapse as a tactic to gain more leverage and influence.

I believe the key to understanding economics and the world at large is to embrace the truth that almost everything that is done in the world of politics and finance is done to manipulate public psychology toward certain ends. That is to say, the true battlefield is the human mind; everything else is secondary.

But what ends am I referring to? To be more specific, the masses are constantly being pressured into more dependency, more fear, less self-sufficiency and less awareness of the grand scheme. We are encouraged to box with our own shadows, to produce for the system but not for ourselves, to struggle for minimal gains spent haphazardly on meaningless objectives, to fight with each other for scraps while remaining blind to the enormous parasites attached to our backs, to affiliate with pointless causes led by puppet politicians and controlled opposition, to never build anything ourselves, always waiting for some hero on a white horse to come and save us.

In essence, we are consistently being distracted or admonished from our natural inclination to establish free markets - free markets in thought, in trade, in information, in government, etc. The globalists are even willing to collapse entire economic systems to prevent this outcome and to keep us trapped in centralization. This prison is a mental one, for the most part. At any time, we could walk away from the totalitarian model and build our own free market systems. Getting to this point psychologically, getting people to take the first steps, is the hard part, however.

Economics as the globalists implement it is not about profit. It is sometimes about milking the population for labor or hard assets, but this is a side benefit. What economics is really about is molding minds; it is about changing the psychology of millions of people. It is about erasing inborn conscience and moral compass. It is about destroying long held societal principles and heritage. And sometimes, it is about erasing history altogether, killing most of a generation, and then writing a new history that is more suitable to the globalist ideal, which is much easier when there are so few people who remember the truth left to argue about it.

Globalists exhibit most, if not all, the traits of narcissistic sociopaths, who sometimes organize into cooperative groups as long as there is a promise of mutual gain and a structure of top down dominance. Narcissistic sociopaths are notorious for using crisis as a means to keep the people around them off balance and serving their interests. Their ultimate goal is rarely profit. Instead, they seek power; power over every aspect of every life of every person around them. A modicum of power is not enough. They want total control, and they will use any means to get it, including engineering threats and disasters to elicit compliance or to paint themselves as a necessary hero or “protector.”

A sociopath is not content to control people through fear or violence alone. They want their victims to love them; to view them as saviors instead of tyrants.

To reiterate, the goal of economic subversion is to break down the human mind and change it into something else; something less human or, at the very least, something less rebellious. One can only control people through debt and false rewards for so long before they start to recoil and revolt. Economic collapse, on the other hand, can change people fundamentally through persistent terror and through tragedy. Through trauma, the globalists hope to make men into monsters or robots.

The current system was never built to last. Our economy is designed to fail, yet few people seem to question why that is? They tell themselves that this is because greed has led the money elite to self-sabotage, but this is a fantasy. It is not just that the system is designed to fail, but that it is designed to fail according to an organized timetable.

The globalist magazine The Economist announced in 1988 the coming of a one-world currency system, one that would be launched in 2018 and that would require the decline of the U.S. economy and the dollar to open the door to the reset. It is no coincidence that we are now witnessing the beginning of a major financial crash in the last quarter of 2018. This crash was engineered starting in 2008 by central banks first through the inflation of a historic bubble encompassing almost all asset classes using stimulus measures and near zero interest rates, and it is being imploded today by the same central banks using tightening measures into economic weakness.

It is also no coincidence that the globalists have announced in 2018 that their intention is to adapt to a digital monetary system using blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. That is to say, the one world currency system predicted in The Economist is already here. They are only waiting for a crisis large enough to pressure society to accept total global centralization as a solution.

Forcing the public to embrace worldwide centralization would require several measures. First, the current system, which as stated is designed to fail, would have to be allowed to crash. Second, the crash would have to be blamed on someone other than the globalists and their ideology of globalism. Third, philosophical opponents of globalism (i.e., conservatives, nationalists and decentralization activists) would have to be demonized or eliminated so that the globalists can build their new world order without opposition. Fourth, the population would need to be sufficiently traumatized to the point of psychological submission and desperation, so that when the new system is introduced, they will be grateful for it, thus preventing future rebellion by making the public a willing cooperator in their own enslavement.

The success of such a plan is not guaranteed. In fact, I believe the globalists will ultimately fail in their endeavor as I have outlined in past articles. This does not mean though that they aren’t going to try. Liberty activists must accept the fact that the plan of the globalists involves the deliberate destruction of our current economy. Those who refuse will find themselves bewildered by the outcome of future financial developments, instead of being prepared. They will find themselves easily subdued, instead of ready to rebel. And they will wonder after it’s all over why they didn’t see it coming when the end game was so obvious.

[Wales-Bales]

I posted an article from Brandon Smith quite recently. His latest offering is below. It's a long read but you might find it interesting.

The Psychological Warfare Behind Economic Collapse: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/3...nomic-collapse

Sapiens is a good book about the mind conditioning that has been going on since the first agricultural revolution. Once you know the tricks everything becomes more obvious.