Look. We’ve beaten the Dutch.

Top Six Most Indebted Nations In The World

1. Ireland – Debt/GDP: 997% the economy reversed course in 2009 and contracted 7%. This eroded tax revenues and sent the annual deficit to a record 14.3% of GDP. The European Union set a target for Ireland to reduce that figure to 3% by 2014, but the International Monetary Fund has indicated that the deadline will be missed. Moody’s has subsequently lowered its bond rating.

2. Netherlands – Debt/GDP: 467%

3. United Kingdom – Debt/GDP: 409%

4. Switzerland – Debt/GDP: 273%

5. Portugal – Debt/GDP: 228%

6. Austria – Debt/GDP: 214

Most Indebted Countries (And Why) (San Francisco Chronicle)

La La La La. I’m not listening:

“Ireland’s Treasury now has to pay investors a premium of nearly 3 percentage points to get investors to buy its 10-year bonds instead of safer Germany’s. This so-called “risk premium” stood at around 2.4 percentage points a week ago.”

“In the derivatives market, it now costs over $270,000 a year to insure $10 million of Ireland’s government debt against the risk of default, compared with $207,000 in early August, a massive 30% jump.”

“The Emerald Isle also had to throw investors a bone: The average interest rate on Ireland’s six-month borrowing today was 2.458% compared with 1.367% on a similar bill in July.”

What’s Up In Ireland? (WSJ.com)