Click on the link and see the show , its amusing, interesting and depressing all rolled into one:THE fun Economist feature of the day is this, a running tally of the global public debt, sortable in multiple ways and presented in attractive and easy to understand graphical fashion. Do have a look.
Just having a quick glance, three things stand out to me. The first is that among developed nations, America's level of debt per capita is pretty small, and it remains small relative to other developed nations in 2010 and 2011, according to The Economist's projections. The second is that rising levels of public debt in America are not unique; debt is rising basically everywhere and will continue to do so for the next two years. This reflects that rising debt levels are only partially a result of domestic policy choices, and are also heavily influenced by broader economic conditions and demographic change.
And the third thing, the thing that immediately jumps out looking at the map of public debt per capita across countries, is that high debt levels are associated with wealth. A statistically naive observer would see the map and conclude that the best thing a country could do to improve its domestic economy would be to start running up public debt.
There are a lot of ways of looking at that dynamic, but it appears to me that countries seem to borrow as much as they can. Poorer countries don't have lower levels of debt per capita because they're more responsible, but rather because they aren't; global debt markets have assigned them a lower credit limit, and so they max out their national public debt credit cards at a much lower level than richer nations. In other words, governments aren't very disciplined.
The other fun thing to do with the clock is click on Zimbabwe, the better to observe the wonders of hyperinflation.
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