"External debt" is defined as the total public and private debt owed to nonresidents repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt US : 42.343 USD UK : 174.167 USD Germany : 54.604 USD Ireland : 448.032 USD China : 271 USD Now, you tell me why the GBP is worth 1.5906 USD ! LOL !
Debt as a simple number without any context says nothing anyways. The world's least indebted nations according to the CIA factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2186rank.html 1 Oman 2 Libya 3 Estonia 4 Chile 5 Botswana 6 Azerbaijan 7 Wallis and Futuna 8 Qatar 9 Russia 10 Luxembourg 11 Kuwait 12 Angola 13 Kazakhstan 14 Equatorial Guinea 15 Ukraine 16 Lithuania 17 Cameroon 18 Nigeria 19 Saudi Arabia 20 Uzbekistan Boy, these places must be booming as we speak. I can't wait to go and live in Botswana and escape from the debt loaded first world turning into thirld world west.
Money always travels to where the people that look rich are. For instance...Who would you rather do business with? The guy that owns a ferrari who has a $300k loan that he still owes on it(and has no way of paying it back), or the guy that fully outright owns his 1974 pinto.