Gordon's doing OK

Take back all the nasty things you've been thinking about Gordon Brown. Dear Prudence!

This is a graphic from the Brussels Journal showing public debt and unfunded pension liabilities as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.













Martin De Vlieghere and Paul Vreymans continue.

Unfunded pension liabilities now average some 285% of GDP [pdf], more than 4 times the officially published public debt figures. Total public liabilities now exceed assets in most EU countries, and are causing runaway debt service. Richard Disney calculates that if social policies are kept unchanged, tax hikes of as much as 5 to 15 percentage points will be necessary over the next couple of decades merely to avoid the rate of indebtedness increasing any further.