If Spain Is In Trouble, What The Hell Is America In?

Recently there have been some articles pointing to the economic problems being experienced in Spain. The comparisons are being made against the other EU nations, but the point is they are in financial trouble. After reading this article I thought I would go look up and see how the United States is in comparison to Spain.

Wrong thing to do.

In January, unemployment reached 18.8%, the highest level by far in the European Union, where the average is 9.5%

Well they got us beat there, but we are worse then the EU average and at the rate we are shedding jobs we may very well get to Spain's numbers before all is said and done.

Although still lower than the E.U. average, the debt-to-GDP ratio has also doubled in the last year to 55%.

The United States debt-to-GDP ratio?

The debt level is the debt as a percent of the total country's production, or GDP. Total economic output, or GDP, is $14.4 trillion. The debt is now 83% of GDP, up from 51% in 1988. (Source: U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny; Bureau of Economic Analysis)

Uh oh. Where have I seen this before?

When unemployment skyrocketed in the wake of that industry's collapse, [housing market] the government responded by spending billions on emergency job-creation plans. Now, it has a deficit of 11.4% to show for its efforts - one of the highest in the E.U.

Folks, reading stuff like this doesn't make me real optimistic for the future, especially with a bunch of Washington bureaucrats who only know how to spend, spend, spend.