Reasons to Worry About the Prospects for a European Bailout

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/reasons-to-worry-about-the-prospects-for-a-european-bailout/249295/

snip

1. Their bank debt is a much bigger than ours was. Here's the list I blogged last year of bank assets as a percentage of GDP:

Luxembourg 2,461%
Ireland 872%
Switzerland 723%
Denmark 477%
Iceland 458%
Netherlands 432%
United Kingdom 389%
Belgium 380%
Sweden 340%
France 338%
Austria 299%
Spain 251%
Germany 246%
Finland 205%
Australia 205%
Portugal 188%
Canada 157%
Italy 151%
Greece 141%

snip

2. We had more fiscal run room than Europe.

Here's the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2008 and 2009 (the last year the OECD had available)




***more at link

[marmar]

1. k/r