The figures presented below are measured in proportion (%) of GDP. For example japan owes the rest of the world 225.8 per cent of its annual GDP... In short, Japan has no means to repay its present debt. Most of the figures are as of 2010. Since then, for example, some economists have calculated that the USA owes nearly 98 per cent of its annual GDP (compared to 58.9 on this list — which may not be accurate)... The debt of the world to itself is about 60 per cent of its GDP. There is about twice as much cash floating around the world than the world annual GDP and more can be printed, but this devalues the quality of the bickies. Guess which country owes the least to the rest of the world on the list... and note Singapore isn't looking too pretty either.

I suppose the game now is to have a weak currency, having written the debt in the said currency before it's weakened and work like hell to sell more stuff to someone else so at least the interest on the debt can be paid... Toil man, toil... Unless the debt is written in other people's currency and your own is massively gaining in value... Thus you can go on holidays, except when you return home there is nothing to sell since it's a buyer's market and your currency takes a plunge ... and it's back on the treadmill...

... Thus there are trends in various countries' debt. Greece for example is going south at a rate of knots and can't pay the interest. Meanwhile the amount of derivative ("insurance" against a meldown of the world economy — a crock of extortion if I saw one) is approaching 1000 per cent of the world GDP... One wrong bet of say 2 per cent swing either way and the world looses 15 percent of its GDP value (but some geezers would make a crapload of moneys)... On top of this, as more ressources and more people are needed to pedal furiously to offset the differential of interest on debt versus GDP, the planet is getting under a lot of stress — which we all have noticed for a long time but paid little attention to, economically... Most of which stress will become massive by 2012... We (humanity) are loonies on a bus with no brakes going down hill and approaching a cliff, though the derivative markets bet on where the parachutes are. In between all this, banks count the beans going back and forth while taking a cut. Some of them are lousy at it and cut themselves though. So we're still at the portion of the game where people have to shake hands, pat each other on the back and pass the lifejackets while the orchestra is still playing on deck, as most people are in the same boat.

Please note I am not an economist and my understanding of the value of money is zero... But I know differentials and the stresses on the planet. A high powered meeting of all humanity will be needed sooner than we think and rewrite the capitalist system to properly include the environment in it... That we owe bickies to someone else is to some extend unimportant. The important is the protection of the earth in the process of giving each other wedgies...

Of course these debt come in various forms from IOUs to loans from the IMF and the World Bank — and "loans" from countries who want you to buy their stuff in return, should you no be able to sell them sumpthin' of "equal value". The key here being "equal" value — plus taxes, minus subsidies and a lot of market illusions in between, plus the bets on the future ... Then there are the short terms loam etc... as one would say: "it's complicated..."

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These figures comes from the CIA

(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2186rank.html)

1 Japan    225.80

2 Saint Kitts and Nevis    185.00

3 Lebanon   150.70

4 Zimbabwe   149.00

5 Greece    144.00

6 Iceland    123.80

7 Jamaica    123.20

8 Italy     118.10

9 Singapore    102.40

10 Belgium    98.60

11 Ireland    94.20

12 Sudan     94.20

13 Sri Lanka     86.70

14 France     83.50

15 Portugal     83.20

16 Egypt      80.50

17 Belize     80.00

18 Hungary     79.60

19 Germany    78.80

20 Nicaragua     78.00

21 Dominica     78.00

22 Israel    77.30

23 United Kingdom     76.50

24 Austria    70.40

25 Malta     69.10

26 Netherlands    64.60

27 Spain    63.40

28 Cote d'Ivoire    63.30

29 Jordan    61.40

30 Cyprus    61.10

31 Brazil    60.80

32 Mauritius    60.50

33 Ghana    59.90

34 Albania    59.30

35 World    59.30

36 Bahrain     59.20

37 United States    58.90

38 Seychelles     58.80

39 Morocco     58.20

40 Bhutan    57.80

41 Guyana    57.00

42 Vietnam    56.70

43 Philippines    56.50

44 Uruguay    56.00

45 India    55.90

46 El Salvador    55.00

47 Croatia    55.00

48 Poland    53.60

49 Malaysia    53.10

50 Kenya    50.90

51 Argentina    50.30

52 Pakistan    49.90

53 Tunisia    49.50

54 Turkey    48.10

55 Norway   47.70

56 Denmark    46.60

57 Aruba    46.30

58 Latvia     46.20

59 Finland    45.40

60 Colombia    44.80

61 United Arab Emirates    44.60

62 Costa Rica    42.40

63 Thailand    42.30

64 Dominican Republic     41.70

65 Serbia    41.50

66 Mexico    41.50

67 Slovakia    41.00

68 Mozambique    40.80

69 Sweden    40.80

70 Malawi    40.40

71 Panama    40.00

72 Czech Republic    40.00

73 Bolivia    39.70

74 Ethiopia    39.30

75 Bangladesh   39.30

76 Yemen    39.10

77 Bosnia and Herzegovina    39.00

78 Ukraine     38.40

79 Switzerland    38.20

80 Montenegro     38.00

81 Lithuania     36.70

82 Slovenia    35.50

83 Romania    34.80

84 Cuba     34.40

85 Macedonia    34.20

86 Canada     34.00

87 Taiwan     33.90

88 South Africa     33.20

89 Senegal     32.10

90 Syria    29.80

91 Guatemala    29.60

92 Papua New Guinea     27.80

93 Indonesia    26.40

94 Trinidad and Tobago    26.40

95 Honduras     26.10

96 Gabon     25.80

97 Algeria    25.70

98 Venezuela    25.50

99 New Zealand    25.50

100 Moldova     25.00

101 Zambia    24.10

102 Peru    23.90

103 Korea, South     23.70

104 Tanzania     23.30

105 Ecuador    23.20

106 Paraguay    22.80

107 Botswana    22.60

108 Australia    22.40

109 Uganda    20.40

110 Angola    20.30

111 Namibia    20.00

112 Hong Kong    18.20

113 China    17.50

114 Saudi Arabia    16.70

115 Iran     16.20

116 Luxembourg     16.20

117 Bulgaria     16.20

118 Kazakhstan    16.20

119 Nigeria     13.40

120 Kuwait    12.60

121 Qatar    10.30

122 Cameroon     9.60

123 Russia     9.50

124 Uzbekistan     9.00

125 Estonia     7.70

126 Gibraltar    7.50

127 Chile    6.20

128 Wallis and Futuna     5.60

129 Azerbaijan    4.60

130 Oman    4.40

131 Equatorial Guinea    4.10

132 Libya    3.30