On Tue, 7 Dec 1999, Daniel Davies wrote:
> >Gross debt is already 130 per cent of
> >gross domestic product, the worst in the Organisation for Economic
> >Cooperation and Development, and rising fast.
>
> AAAAAAAARRRGHHH!!!! If I see one more repetition of this meaningless damn
> statistic, I swear I'll eat my own trousers in frustration. The Gross debt
> of Japan, compared to the flow of GDP, is a number which is utterly
> uninformative about Japan's ability to pay its debts.
It isn't? How come? And be gentle, it's my first time hearing this. But I'm eager to learn.
BTW, what would be a good measure of an OECD country's (in)ability to pay its debts? Do you mean all that guff about 130 percent being such a bad thing for Italy and Belgium and Greece is just that, guff?
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com