Question - Where's the money?

[suityou01]

How come everyone is in Debt - People, companies, governments.
EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING IS IN DEBT!!!!!
Have you ever wondered how can that be? who are we in debt to?
The answer is quite amazing really - However, my take on it is that we are all in debt to ourselves. One man's mortgage (promise to pay) is another man's pension.
The really amazing part is that the banking system gets a slice, no matter what happens - and so they increase their share of the "value of the world".

However there is only a finite "value of the world" in the absolute currency of the item (e.g. 1 bridge = 1 bridge, 10 houses = 10 houses)

Of course, the world value increases if we build more things - like houses etc.
But, IMO, we have reached a point where the banking system (on paper), now has the legal rights to more "promises of world value" than there is "World value to give".

Where we go from here is the most interesting event for mankind.
It is the whole basis from which Gordon Brown stands.

If vested interests e.g. media and banking are against GB, then maybe we should try and understand why.

It may be that GB is more of a hero than you realise.

Agreed. We now have "meta-currency"

[Cyberman]

Fascinating. Your mom must be so proud.

I bet your mum is proud of you voting Labour !!

[BrilloPad]

Fascinating. Your mom must be so proud.

He has a mom?

[Cyberman]

He has a mom?

My mom is lovely. 81 and going strong, touch wood. Her mom lived to 102.

[gingerjedi]

If anybody is massively in debt and cannot finance repayments they have only themselves to blame. Personally, I have my lowest debt levels for years, achieved by living within my means.

No doubt in your day houses were cheap and you could get by with only one bread winner, I had to go contracting just to make ends meet for my family, I really don’t know how average earners survive? No wonder so many throw the towel in and settle for a life of benefits, life in the UK is just too dam expensive.

Of course this was all masked when their ever increasing asset was good to borrow against, even though the current climate looks like a disaster it’s exactly what was needed… a big fat reality check.

[Cyberman]

No doubt in your day houses were cheap and you could get by with only one bread winner, I had to go contracting just to make ends meet for my family, I really don’t know how average earners survive? No wonder so many throw the towel in and settle for a life of benefits, life in the UK is just too dam expensive.

Of course this was all masked when their ever increasing asset was good to borrow against, even though the current climate looks like a disaster it’s exactly what was needed… a big fat reality check.

My house was not cheap when I bought it 20 years ago. I did take a risk in those days and interest rates were 15% at one stage and I was paying a mortgage of 1200 pounds a month in 1992. That was a struggle and taught me a lesson, and I have not moved house since then.

I agree, it is very tough for people nowadays but some do not help themselves. For instance, I was working with a young lady that was paying 700 pounds a week to rent a house in London. Moving out of London would have saved her and her partner a fortune, as renting my 4 bed place would only be about 1,000 a month.

Brown has not helped people either, with his reluctance to raise tax bands in line with inflation since 1997 and drawing millions of people into the 40% tax bracket who never had to pay top rate tax before. The other big scandal is council tax that under the old rating system was about 500 quid prior to 1997, but now is 1500 quid for my house. The fact that 25% of council tax pays public sector pensions is a huge contributor to the constant rises.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Its in China and Japan.

Yup, and some of the OPEC countries.

Nope, they lent it back to the US government by buying US Treasuries.

Linky: US Treasury - MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES

Which was lent to the US Banks, .........

[KentPhilip]

I had

Funny you should say that- I lost £10K last week on a spreadbet shorting the pound. Owch