Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/27/2012 - 09:43 European Central Bank European Union General Electric Germany Gross Domestic Product Sovereign Debt
"The statistical component of the European Union, Eurostat, is quite clear; they do not count guarantees or contingent liabilities as part of any nation’s debt. We might all note that if Nestle or IBM or General Electric did this they would find their senior executives jailed for Fraud but never mind; this is the methodology of the EU which quite obviously masks the truth. The problem then is not the simple math used to obtain a more accurate debt to GDP ratio but in digging out the various guarantees, contingent liabilities and obligations of any member nation of the European Union. “Time consuming” would be the accurate words because you have to sleuth around like Sherlock Holmes to come up with the data. Yes, it is all there somewhere or another but it is nowhere all together and so must be found." And as Mark Grant points out what we noted last July, when one factors in all the various guarantees and contingent liabilities by Germany to date, something peculiar appears: instead of a 81.8% Debt/GDP, the country's actual Debt to GDP soars to a Italy-lie 139.8%.
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/germany-final-frontier-whose-true-debtgdp-now-140
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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