What happened the last time UK debt hit 100%? I don't remember the 1960s as being particularly tough times for the UK, other than the IRA bombings.<p>Edit:<p>> Considered by conventional macroeconomic metrics, the 1960s can claim to be one of the UK’s most economically successful decades. GDP growth averaged 3.5%, unemployment 2.7% and inflation 3.5%. Real disposable household income per head was 25% greater by the end of the 1960s than it was at the end of the 1950s. However, such figures fail to take account of the trajectory of developments over the course of the decade, which tended largely in a negative direction. As well as slowing growth in real disposable household incomes and the declining profitability of industry, this trajectory can also be seen with respect to inflation and unemployment. As can be seen in table 3, inflation and the unemployment rate began the decade at 1.0% and 2.1% respectively, but gradually ratcheted up with every stop-go cycle. By 1969 inflation was 5.4% and unemployment 3.5%, a post-war high.<p>From <a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/the-uk-economy-in-the-1960s/" rel="nofollow">https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/the-uk-economy-in-the-196...</a>
Economists love debt. Some even like inflation… like Richard Koo: <a href="https://youtu.be/KRSpfG6hRTQ?si=qx8DcIm891hN5dTy" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/KRSpfG6hRTQ?si=qx8DcIm891hN5dTy</a><p>I just want some honesty and transparency. If you are going to let in migrants, do it transparently…
Yet another reason why I love Singapore: by law, the budget must be balanced over every parliamentary term. So, they never accumulate runaway debt. And that's before you count the $2.5 trillion reserves they have across Temasek, GIC, CPF, and MAS. And that's for a country of just 6 million people.<p>Even the Arab petro-states that literally scoop money from the ground haven't saved that much! (Highest is Saudi Arabia with $1 trillion.)<p>Edit: in case you're wondering, no, there's no catch: Singapore has ultra-modern infrastructure, great healthcare, and they're enviable in every way.
It is somewhat alarming that almost no developed economy seems to be capable of having a balanced budget. Maybe it is an aftereffect of aging and bad birth rates - slow erosion of the taxpayer base.<p>Given that debt cannot grow to infinity, something will give way one day.
Japan's Debt also passed 250% of GDP in 2020. We really need to look into a lot deeper into the word GDP and Debt rather than just focusing on the 100% or 200% part.
The UK, which creates UK pounds, can pay off these UK pound debts any time it likes; any day between lunch and tea time that it decides to do so, it can.<p>Discussions of sovereign debts as if they were the same as debts owed by individuals are laughable.<p>The stated actions planned by Labour (generally impoverishing the populace and slowing the economy) will have the effect of increasing the notional indebtedness of the UK, not decreasing it.