| Topic: | Re:National Debt | |
| Posted by: | David Fox | |
| Date/Time: | 18/05/07 14:50:00 |
| Viv wrote: >how many noughts in a billion. We seem to have 9, the Americans have 12.< Actually, it's the other way round. Also, the old meaning of a billion as a million million is no longer used, the American thousand million has become the norm (at least in the English speaking world). A million million is now a trillion. >The Daily Mail has this to say (pinch of salt please): Britain's national debt [...] is three times higher than the Government admits.< Worryingly, this may be true.... Gordon Brown is particularly keen on PFI because it keeps all that debt off the books. If you admit that all that PFI money for schools and hospitals is really a public debt (and who else will be paying for it?), then it should really be added to stated national debt. Also, none of the public sector pension liabilities are included in the figures for national debt. |