who are countries in debt to???

[R0G]

UK, US, many EU states etc

Many countries have huge debts so who is holding all the markers for those debts?

[Matt UK]

Loan sharks

[cuprabob]

China

[LongLiveTazio]

First Plus.

edit: they did manage to free up enough cash for a holiday and home improvement though, so not all bad.

[sharpfocus]

Bernie.

[JeS10]

wonga.com - even after they warned that it is not a suitable long term solution.

[MarJay]

Central banks. Although some tinfoil hatter will come along soon to tell you that they are all owned by the Jewish mafia or some other nonsense.

[ADEuk]

Shape shifting lizards

[Steffan]

ADEuk said:

Shape shifting lizards

Nice on an excellent assessement.

[Steffan]

SB assessment OOPS sorry.

[blueg33]

ADEuk said:

Shape shifting lizards

I like that, I have just spent the day with some of them

In reality if you have a pension, or an endowment mortgage, premium bonds etc then they are in debt to you

[Mr2Mike]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_debt

[cossy400]

Well us british are in debt to David Cameron and his cronies, because as he keeps telling us were all in this together................................... while hes spending 10 grand a week somewhere. But thats my opinion and its counts for very little,

[Gizmo!]

Waiting for this to get switched forum, 3... 2... 1...

But "other countries" pretty much covers it.

For example:

• Greece has a bad rating that means they would be forced to offer debt to the market at (say) 8% (i.e. pay 8% of the amount in interest per year to whoever buys it).
• However, Germany has a better rating and can offer debt to the market at (say) 4%.
• So if Germany issues debt at 4% and then passes the money on to Greece at 6%...
• Greece gets the money it needs (to pay off the interest on existing loans!) and pays Germany 6% p.a.
• Germany pays whoever bought the 'German' debt their 4%.
• Germany pockets 2%. Everyone buys bratwurst and fizzy lager.

Subsitute Greece/Germany for Ireland/UK and US/China...

[bqf]

Ocean Finance - Greece 'just gave them a go' a few too many times. There's only so many extensions you can make to the Parthenon before you get repo'd

[R0G]

If all those that owed money had it written off then who would end up the worse off?

[Tonberry]

The Rothschilds.

[tercelgold]

Pensioners, same people who invested in property to the tune of several thousand billion.

[alephnull]

the right answer is pension funds and banks.

[AJS-]

Everyone