The last three years have seen some of the worst economic years in history for Western countries as a whole.
The governments have responded in a universal manner.
They've pumped money into their economies in one form or another which has run up huge national debts.
This is starting to cause serious concerns in Europe.
When a government pumps money into an economy, it comes with a definitive cost.
In the current situation, the cost is massive debt loads.
The United States, for instance, has to roll over a staggering two trillion dollars in national debt this year while also running an additional 1.
9 trillion dollars in debt.
For the time being, the country can pull this off but the same is not true in other economies that are not as strong or credible.
The proof of this is beginning to show in what are known as the periphery nations of the European Union.
The number one concern at the moment is Greece.
The country currently has a national debt to GDP ration of 120 percent.
This means the debt is greater than the GDP.
Even worse, the annual budget deficit for 2010 is 13 percent of gross domestic purpose when membership in the EU requires a debt of no more than three percent.
Greece is facing a massive debt default and soon.
The Greeks are not the only country living on the edge.
Portugal is another periphery country in debt, but there are big boys getting into it as well.
There is a ton of pressure on the countries of the Europe Union to step in and bailout Greece and Portugal if it comes to that.
Why? Well, a failure to do so will signal to markets that national debt of European countries is far riskier than they originally thought.
If so, money will move out of those debt investments and countries like Italy and Spain who are in bad shape will be unable to sell new debt without high interest rates on.
High interest rates would effectively crush whatever small economic recovery they are seeing.
The national debt crisis that is playing out in the European Union is nothing to smirk at.
Countries like the United States and Japan are running up debt totals that are so high that is probably that their currency will suffer badly.
The world economies are undergoing a huge adjustment and what everything will look like on the other side is anyone's guess.
The governments have responded in a universal manner.
They've pumped money into their economies in one form or another which has run up huge national debts.
This is starting to cause serious concerns in Europe.
When a government pumps money into an economy, it comes with a definitive cost.
In the current situation, the cost is massive debt loads.
The United States, for instance, has to roll over a staggering two trillion dollars in national debt this year while also running an additional 1.
9 trillion dollars in debt.
For the time being, the country can pull this off but the same is not true in other economies that are not as strong or credible.
The proof of this is beginning to show in what are known as the periphery nations of the European Union.
The number one concern at the moment is Greece.
The country currently has a national debt to GDP ration of 120 percent.
This means the debt is greater than the GDP.
Even worse, the annual budget deficit for 2010 is 13 percent of gross domestic purpose when membership in the EU requires a debt of no more than three percent.
Greece is facing a massive debt default and soon.
The Greeks are not the only country living on the edge.
Portugal is another periphery country in debt, but there are big boys getting into it as well.
There is a ton of pressure on the countries of the Europe Union to step in and bailout Greece and Portugal if it comes to that.
Why? Well, a failure to do so will signal to markets that national debt of European countries is far riskier than they originally thought.
If so, money will move out of those debt investments and countries like Italy and Spain who are in bad shape will be unable to sell new debt without high interest rates on.
High interest rates would effectively crush whatever small economic recovery they are seeing.
The national debt crisis that is playing out in the European Union is nothing to smirk at.
Countries like the United States and Japan are running up debt totals that are so high that is probably that their currency will suffer badly.
The world economies are undergoing a huge adjustment and what everything will look like on the other side is anyone's guess.