"We Are Number One!", Or Why At Least Broke Greece Is Not America. A rather curious phenomenon that has been observed in the popular press lately is that on those rare occasions when total global public debt is demonstrated correctly on a country by country basis, i.e., including contingent liabilities, as well as various trans-national, public-sector backed guarantees (such as EFSF backstops), and most importantly the Net Present Value of pensions and healthcare, or the cost of the welfare state expressed in current dollars, there is one country that is systematically excluded.
That would be the United States. Today we set the record straight by adding the US to the list where it rightfully belongs, and also answer the rhetorical question of why the US just so happens to be consistently omitted from such column-chart based, hair-raising classifications. Simply said, it is quite clear why the now defaulted Hellenic Republic could and should be forgiven in saying that “at least Greece is not America…”
UK Debt Infographic: All You Need To Know. Crise de l'euro : un complot anglo-saxon ? PIGS. Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre.
PIGS, PIIGS et PIIGGS PIGS (littéralement, « porcs » en anglais) est un acronyme[1] utilisé pour la première fois en 2008 par quelques journalistes britanniques et américains, spécialisés en finances ou en économie, pour désigner quatre pays de l'Union européenne : Portugal, Irlande, Grèce et Espagne (« Spain », en anglais)[2]. Parfois, l'Italie est incluse dans le lot, ce qui donne PIIGS[3].