|
Mike : re: Business Week , 11 Trillion US$!<< I copied the article , but don't have the SI printout. It's the 5/18 issue of BW. The figures according to them are - actual public debt $11 trillion , and actual problem loans $1 trillion. Personally , I suspect the problem loans are considerably higher , but it's all in how you define "problem" . Many Japanese companies large and small are very highly leveraged , and the banks used to lend money to anybody who breathed. They define a problem loan as not even paying interest - in other words , no hope of collection. Think about it - a lot of companies can scrape together interest , which usually isn't too much of a problem. If a loan is simply paying interest , it's not a "problem" loan ! This is regardless of whether there is any realistic chance of the PRINCIPAL ever being repaid. No telling how big this number is , but it is likely huge. The BW article is stating the government's "official" figure , and adding in a few extras , but still under the definition of "paying interest, no problem". |
