Debt Lessons From Around The World As members of Congress spar
over whether to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, they might consider
the efforts of other governments to manage their own debt
problems. Some have been successful — some not — but all their
experiences are instructive, with lessons for Washington. Take
Canada. Back in 1993, it was burdened by a government debt
comparable to almost 70 percent of the country's gross domestic
product (GDP). Government overspending had left the country with
a big budget deficit. Moody's Investor Service put Canada on a
"credit watch" because of the high debt-to-GDP ratio. In an
editorial, The Wall Street Journal mocked the Canadian dollar as
"the peso of the north," while another Journal article suggested
that Canada was on its way to becoming a third-world country.
"Both were exaggerations," says David Henderson, a Canadian-born
economist now teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School. "But it
was scary to a lot of Canadians." In response to the growing
outcry, the Canadi