Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Debt is Spreading

It seems that America is not the only country with economic problems. Though many people once saw that the economic plague may be associated with individual, isolated countries, it is now shown that these economic problems are widespread. Countries across the globe are currently or about to blow up with debt. For example, Russia, though it gained huge sums of money from high oil prices, is now facing the fact that it has to pay back all those short-term "borrowing binges" as the article dubs. In Germany, within the next year, is expected to increase it's governmental debt so much as the debt would be equivalent of 77% of the nation's total economic output next year. In Britain, the debt would be equal to 80%. That's a lot of debt. There are other countless countries mentioned in the article (embedded in the title), such as the Baltic states of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Lithuania.

I think that, well of course, this is bad. Not only does it show that countries everywhere are under economic turmoil, but it also shows that I am not very aware of the world around me. All these countries need financial help, yet the only country that I really knew about with needs for economic health was America. Maybe I just live in a cave, but it seems that the media needs to focus on overseas news as well as domestic affairs.

5 comments:

Sammie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sammie said...

I definitely agree that the media should be focusing not only on the US, but on other countries too. The countires should learn from each other, not only each others mitakes but what is working for them too. If one country finds an effective way to eliminate/ decrease its debt, other countires should follow suit and promote similar, effective ways to decrease their own debt.

Corinne Umali said...

I think that this is very unfortunate. But I also hope that countries that are suffering from recession and other economic problems are being proactive about their situations and not just sitting around watching their economies go down the drain. I also feel somewhat ignorant because I was not aware of the fact that there are so many other countries with economic problems other than the US!

Unknown said...

I completely agree, however, haven't we known for a long time that the media picks and chooses things? Nonetheless, you would think they would devote more attention to word affairs outside the war in Iraq. I watch the news almost every night or at least look at CNN as by opening webpage, and there really is not a lot of coverage. I understand we are mainly concerned with our own countries well being and believe we should be-but especially when we import so many goods from foriegn countries, you would think we'd care if their economy was going down the drain.

Esther A. said...

Couldn't increasing government debt show that countries are being proactive? Increased government spending (like this year's stimulus package here), even as an effort to help the economy=increased government debt, right?
-Esther A