Hypothetical News: “…Traders around the world today began to sell all of the USA’s military assets after a devastating terrorist attack removed confidence in the nation’s ability to protect itself. In other news, a patient who may become terminally ill in the next few weeks has had all treatment ceased as doctors do not wish to invest any more medical-capital into a patient who only has a sixty percent chance of survival…”
On the face of it, both of these hypothetical events are reprehensible. The first because it effectively removes any ability for a nation to defend its citizens against a threat, and the second because it effectively writes off a patient as ‘dead’ without having tried all available opportunities.
Financial Life Support
Sovereign debt (usually in the form of government bonds) are one of the two key methods governments use to raise money (the other being taxes). In the absence of a kleptocracy, this money is then used to fund everything from education and health, to infrastructure, defence, culture and more. In the UK, sovereign debt pays for our free healthcare, defends our population here and abroad, provides education for millions, economic opportunity for millions more, and provides us the infrastructure we need to go about our daily lives. In developing economies- this same debt lifts hundreds of millions out of poverty and hunger, and provides (alongside international aid) the capital to give billions a chance to engage with the global economy. Continue reading
