Fiscal Irresponsibility 20: Trade and Budget Balances

Here is the latest stats from The Economist on trade, current account and budget balances of rich and emerging economies worldwide. From the table on "Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates" December 31st 2011 issue, http://www.economist.com/node/21542207

To summarize, here are the countries with:

A. Largest trade deficit, $ bill: US         -720 Britain  -163 India     -124 Turkey  -107 France  -  99 Spain    -  63 Italy      -  45 B. Largest trade surplus, $ bill: Germany +193 Russia      +188 China       +154 Saudi A.  +150 Norway   +  69 Ireland    +  61 Netherl   +  57

C. Largest current account deficit, $ bill US          -467 Italy       -  79 Turkey  -  79 France   -  68 Spain     -  57 India      -  46 Britain   -  41 D. Largest current account surplus, $ bill: China        +259 Germany +190 Japan        +139 Russia       +  86 Switzerl    +  86 Saudi A.    +  75 Norway    +  70 Netherl     +  67

E. Largest budget deficit, % of GDP Ireland -10.7 Egypt    -10.0 Greece   -9.5 Britain    -8.8 US           -8.7 New Z,   -8.4 Japan      -8.3 Portugal -6.7 Spain      -6.5 Iceland  -6.1 Poland   -6.0 Pakistan -5.9 France    -5.8 Malays   -5.6 S. Africa -5.5 Latvia     -5.5 Lithuan. -5.5 India       -5.4 Venez.    -5.2 Vietnam -5.1 Slovenia  -5.0

F. Largest budget surplus, % of GDP Saudi A.  +14.3 Norway   +13.1 S. Korea  +  2.4 Hong K.   +  1.8 Hungary  +  1.2 Czech R   -4.6 Netherl   -4.2 Ukraine  -4.2 Canada   -4.0 Italy         -4.0 Slovakia  -4.0 Denmark -3.9 Belgium  -3.8 Austria    -3.6 * China      -1.8

The US economy is leading on deficit on merchandise trade and current account, and ranking high also on budget deficit. On the other hand, China, Germany and Russia are leading on trade and current account surpluses.

But the most glaring fact here is that fiscal irresponsibility -- governments which are continuously living beyond their means, spending much larger than their revenues and keep borrowing like crazy -- is alive and kicking for so many countries. Only the governments of Saudi Arabia and Norway have high budget surpluses. Saudi is a big oil exporter, the government, the monarchy, is earning a lot from oil revenues, that's why. In the case of Norway, the government there has lots of revenues from energy sales and exports, among others.

Big government in general is wrong. Government administrators and political leaders tend to over-promise to voters and in the process, encourage the abdication of more personal and parental/guardian responsibility in running the people's own lives. It shifted the attention to more "government responsibility" via nannyism and costly welfare system. Over the long term, heavy public debts and the economic and financial instability caused by such heavy indebtedness is causing diswelfare to the people.
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See also:
Fiscal irresponsibility 15: Philippine government budget 2012, August 08, 2011
Fiscal irresponsibility 16: On government bail outs, September 11, 2011
Fiscal irresponsibility 17: Cut Spending and Borrowing, September 19, 2011
Fiscal Irresponsibility 18: Greece Bailout, October 29, 2011
Fiscal Irresponsibility 19: Rich Countries' Debts, November 24, 2011