Hacker News Reader

Comment by alexbeloi | Hacker News Reader

US debt to GDP ratio is half that of China, not claiming the trend is sustainable but that (at least according to Moody's) China is more at risk of a runaway debt-spend crisis than the US is.

View on HN

Not only is our debt-to-GDP ratio lower than China's, it's lower than most (not all) countries in Western Europe.

There is so much uninformed hysteria about the US national debt, it's incredibly frustrating and blocking the implementation of better policy.

By what measure is the US ratio lower than China's? US is worse in the IMF measure of gross debt to GDP by far. Looking at total debt (government, corporate, and household), the US is worse: 331% to 250%. What numbers are you looking at?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/16/chinas-debt...

> it's lower than most (not all) countries in Western Europe.

Portugal, Italy and Ireland aren't "most of western europe": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_de...

Where did you get this info? Every source I see shows China's Debt/GDP (42.90%) as much lower than the US (104.17%).

China's total debt is about 250% of GDP, compared to over 300% for the United States [1]. It's more useful to observe total debt since lots of debt the Chinese government will ultimately have to assume, in one form (e.g. financially) or another (e.g. political turmoil), is not held on the government balance sheet, e.g. debt issued by its banks or critical employers or regional governments. Most American debt, on the other hand, is issued by relatively-well regulated banks and by the federal government.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/16/chinas-debt...

The 43% number already includes provincial government debt. Direct debt of the central government is about 20%. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_...

The parent is talking about total debt - public, household, and corporate. China's public debt isn't too much but the corporate debt is what has skyrocketed. Many analysts treat Chinese corporate debt as more-or-less equivalent to public debt (and don't do this for the United States), on the assumption that the government will bail out SOEs rather than allow them to fail and create widespread unemployment. That may or may not be true, but that's why they make statements like "China's debt is twice the United States'".

>Many analysts treat Chinese corporate debt as more-or-less equivalent to public debt (and don't do this for the United States), on the assumption that the government will bail out SOEs rather than allow them to fail and create widespread unemployment

I'd say this certainly gives a lot of political leeway in China, compared to having the opposite in place. I wonder if all the major US companies that were bailed out, that their debt should be considered public debt seeing there is already a precedent in place. But something tells me I doubt moodys will have a word on that.

Consider, too, China's less-favorable demographic profile [1].

[1] http://i1.itc.cn/20140702/2be8_38e3d3f0_51f7_95e6_f762_a7064...

I can't seem to edit my comment anymore. In an attempt to correct the record, I'm very wrong about my claim in at least a couple of ways.

1. I made that statement without checking my facts

2. I recalled from the news today that China had a debt to gdp ratio of about 250% (this is total debt to gdp, including debt held by consumers and corporations)

3. I compared it to a number in my head of US debt to gdp ratio being about 100% (this turns out to be about government debt to gdp).

At the very least, the thing I intended to say is wrong or an unequal comparison at best.

US debt to GDP is more than double China's. Where are you getting your data?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com