As of the third quarter of 2009, American external debt to GDP hovers at 96.5%, the highest it’s been at any time since World War II. External debt includes all government, corporate and private debts to foreign nations; in other words, debts we don’t owe to ourselves. Right now we’ve amassed an astounding $13.77 trillion worth of them! That’s almost $4.5 trillion more than the United Kingdom who came in second and over $8 trillion over Germany, who came in third.

Yet right now, the world is focused on Greece, which is requiring a massive bailout from the IMF (partially paid for by United States taxpayers). As a stipulation of the bailout, the IMF is demanding Greece raise taxes and cut social benefits, which has predictably lead to rioting in the street.

I’ve had enough of the bailouts, but what’s more concerning to me is where Greece stands on a list of countries regarding their debt situation:

This information, from the CIA Worldfactbook, is actually a little old. A less complete, but more updated list (although still mostly from mid-2009) puts the United States at 96.5% instead of 94%, the United Kingdom at 425.9% instead of 365.4% and Ireland at 1312% instead of 998.9%! Wow, the United States actually looks pretty good, relatively speaking of course.

But look where Greece is on the list; 19th at 153% (at 170.5% as of 2009). That’s no where near as bad as Ireland, Iceland, the United Kingdom or the Netherlands. It’s also not much different than Sweden, Germany, France and Spain. And the United States is certainly doing what it can to catch up.

Greece was engaged in some deceptive tactics to hide their insolvency, such as hiding billions of dollars worth of currency swaps through Goldman Sachs. However, there’s no reason to necessarily think other governments haven’t been engaging in this kind of Enron-like accounting. And regardless, their debt is still multiples smaller than many fellow European nations.

Also, notice the countries who are saving: China, India, South Korea, Singapore, etc. As many have predicted, including myself, we are witnessing the rise of the East and the fall of the West.

Furthermore, it’s interesting how little debt many of the poorest countries have. Part of this is certainly because there are significant doubts as to these country’s credit-worthiness. But doesn’t it say something that while the richest countries in the world drown in debt, Bolivia—the poorest country in South America—has a debt/GDP ratio of 11.31%?

Regardless of the irony, these debt/GDP ratios are unsustainable. In all likelihood, Greece is just the beginning.