Who are the big league borrowers? Which governments have built up the largest stocks of debt?

War-torn Lebanon comes top of the list. Currently, they owe two times annual income. Not far behind comes Japan, owing almost 1.8 times annual income. Three of the top ten are from Europe, and 3 are developing countries. At least five of these countries have serious demographic problems - Japan, Italy, Greece, Signapore and Belgium. This debt will need to be repaid just as most workers will be heading from the retirement homes. Eygpt is the only Arab country. If only they had oil instead of pyramids.

Zimbabwe is on the list,not because the government borrowed huge sums. Rather it is there because the Mugabe decided to destroy the economy. As the economy declines, it becomes increasingly harder to pay the debt back.

So where is the US on this list? It ranked 30th with a public debt to GDP ratio of 65 percent. Hong Kong was the least indebted country (for the 120 countries who publish data). Its debt to GDP ratio was just one percent.