Let’s play the latest Japanese game!

It is called “how to bring oneself to fiscal suicide”

Japanese GDP : 480 trillion yen

Japanese Government Debt (only Federal) : 637 trillion yen (137% of GDP)

Federal Expenditure (2010) : 92.3 trillion
…of which ~20.5 trillion yen is debt servicing cost

Accordingly, the average debt servicing cost is (20.5/637 = ) 3.24%

Federal taxes and other revenue is 44.3 trillion yen, which means borrowing is 48 trillion yen.

Expenditure ex. debt servicing is 71.65 trillion, of which 48 trillion (roughly 2/3) is borrowed.

If you read the last line in the fact-box again, you realize that this is a real horror story. After paying interest on its debt, Japan has only 23.65 trillion yen left, yet it spends 71.65 trillion...

Read more over at Save Capitalism

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