[rsynnott]

Huh. Ireland’s is about 2.5% (3.1bn on 119bn budget next year). Slightly puzzled at what’s going on with the US debt; that does seem very expensive. Though it’s not _entirely_ comparing like for like, in that states have their own separate budgets in the US (local authorities in Ireland do too, but their own revenue raising capabilities are very limited and most of the money comes from central government).

Looks like the US’s cost of servicing works out to about 3.4%, which definitely seems rather high (though, probably still not high enough that you’d necessarily want to aggressively pay it down; 3.4% isn’t a _great_ return). Actually, I’d wonder how much of this is related to the debt ceiling stuff; I would assume that makes refinancing when debt is cheap more difficult.

[s1artibartfast]

for Ireland, are you talking about % GDP or %governmental budget.

I don't know how or if the debt ceiling has any impact on refinancing.

[rsynnott]

% budget. Debt servicing is about 0.5% GDP, but Ireland’s GDP is so massively distorted that it’s not really worth paying attention to.

[s1artibartfast]

OK, I think we were using different units when comparing.

My concern is that the US GDP is also fluffed up, and the situation is more dire.