For those who want a grip on reality in regards to the economic stability of the planet this interview with James Rickards is a must see.

He wrote 'Currency Wars' and the 'Death of Money'.He says we are headed for a Great Depression that could last 25 yrs. The stock market capitalisation as a % of GDP ,is twice as high of the Great Depression of 1929.In other words the stock market is propped up by debt. Since 2006 US Corps have borrowed $4.3 trillion to buy their own shares to secure their salaries and commissions. They bet against their own shares going down via the derivative market.

His estimate of derivatives be 10 times the GDP of the planet is very conservative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYW5OGWfqJc

Thanks for the very informative link Ajay, and for the most part you seem to be right on the money, if you'll pardon the deliberate pun.
Comparative graphs show debt under Keynesian economic theory,that every one dollar bought around 2.4 dollars worth of growth and continued until the event of Reganism, reduced taxes, and consequent less expenditure on national/nation building infrastructure; which was simply allowed to run down, but particularly, where privatization imposed it's profit heavy model, on the very foundation of any economy, energy and capital/essential service!
Today the numbers are very illuminating, and for every dollar of debt, the American economy produces 0.03 dollars worth of economic growth.
That means the current growth has been purchased with a huge growth in totally unsustainable debt.
The US Federal reserve is around 54 billions and supports a debt now totaling an unsustainable 4.5 trillion, or put in a way more easily understood; every one dollar of capital, now supports 77 dollars worth of debt.
There's a financial Perl Harbor in the wings, and Americans have been warned.
Already food stamps and supermarkets have largely replaced the soup kitchens of the Great depression.
[And the real if largely unreported unemployment is closer to 23%!? Unemployed non bread winners with employed partners are just not counted!?]
Even so, soup kitchens and the tent cities now abound in the rust belts of the mid west!
Were I a financial adviser, I would advise dumping share portfolios/equity/overvalued housing, and buying gold.
Which is the only thing in prospect of a rise, give the debt level and the impending collapse of the USD, as the preferred international currency.
The only part where I tend to disagree Ajay, is where you said our foreign debt was around one trillion; rather, it's closer to two!
Cheers, Rhrosty.

Rhrosty if you want to invest in precious metals suggest you do it soon. They've forced down their prices using the derivative market. Metal shares have dropped because prices are below the cost of production. For every oz of metals there are 100 pieces of paper laying claim to its existence.

Harvey Organ says price fixing will finish by the end of this year and China will determine this. He reckons China will run out of silver by years end. They need silver for nearly all their industries and they cannot stop production.

see Harvey here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZwSiHBxm0c

As I said, Arjay, please stop pretending that you understand any of this.

>>Total Aust debt is over 5 trillion and we have debt half of most Western countries.<<

For a start, your "debt clock" includes "Private Sector Debt within the Banking System", which - if you were to think about it, instead of simply cut'n'pasting random numbers, are actually assets within the banking system.

For example, "housing debt" is underpinned by real bricks'n'mortar entities. In what way is this a problem? Business and personal debt is money that has been borrowed from Banks, and upon which interest is being paid. In what way is this a problem?

And, as usual, you can't keep yourself from talking about derivatives, of which you know precisely nothing, since you always add up both sides of the trade - the put and the call - without netting them off. I really thought that you might have understood this after all this time.

But hey, why let a few facts intrude on a conspiracy theory. You never have before, after all.

So pericles are you saying private debt within the banking system does not count ? This represents our over inflated mortgages and business debt for which workers, not manipulators of the system must pay. This $5 trillion debt is over $400,000 for every working person or $800,000 for every household.

Rhrosty, Harvey Organ could well be wrong about how much gold and silver China possesses. He thinks China has 4500 -6000 tons. Some say as high as 30,000 tons. China/Russia do not want war as they are winning the peace. If China has hidden reserves they will quite willingly let the USA print their $ into oblivion, as this gives them time to get stronger. China is quite happy to buy up metals at below production costs. This could go on for months until people lose faith in the share market and the US $.

The next collapse is a mathematical certainty and it will be gigantic because all the money printing on the planet will not restore confidence. James Rickards thinks they will use SDRs of the IMF as the new reserve currency but China has other ideas.

China through the BRICS development bank may just take over the role of the US Federal Reserve and hold the planet in a new debt money slavery system. Unless the BRICS allow member countries to create their own credit, nothing will change. It will be the same old slavery and a different master.

When any one country or organisation gets too much power, the masses suffer. Nature finds strength in diversity, so how can their New World Order of Global Governance be good for the masses of this planet ?

Mostly agree Ajay, and that's two times in a single week! China is proposing a new development bank utilizing its huge holdings in USD!
Well what else could they do with them, recycle them for out house duties?
We are being asked to join as a founding partner!
And given a predictable future, exactly what we should do!
A place at the table is a better prospect than being forced to rely on the crumbs that fall from it!
If the Americans have a problem with that, then let them propose a brand new FTA, that actually hands us an advantage, rather than bleeds us white the way the current and huge USA trade advantage does now!
And that would underpin an ongoing reason to remain allied to America, as part of our defense shield.
Note I said defense!
Not American lead military adventurers, that are hardly in the national interest.
A better deal would allow us to earn the dollars we need to make ourselves truly independent of any other military alliance.
One notes South Vietnam had a similar USA military commitment, and only as good as the political will, and the whim and caprice of those who currently back it?
Fickle public opinion!
Rhrosty.