The global debt clock - An interactive overview of government debt across the planet

The Economist has an interesting page that provides us with an interactive overview of government debt across the planet. Every second, someone in the world takes on more debt and so, the global debt clock just keeps increasing.

At present, the total debt stands at

Total global debt - Minutes before the time of this article was written

Comparing national debt of United States and Singapore,

National debt of United States and Singapore

It seems to imply Singapore's public debt and debt per person is a LOT higher than United States'. However, public debt must be looked at in the context of both domestic and foreign debt. U.S.'s national debt is mostly foreign held by foreign counterparts like China, Japan, etc, even including Singapore. In comparison, Singapore's national debt is mostly made of CPF - the national savings scheme/fund for retirement, i.e. domestic. On the international debt market, Singapore is a net creditor. Singapore Treasury does not need to issue bonds to raise money; it issues bonds to sustain and smoothen the bond markets. On the contrary, U.S. Treasury issues bonds because they really need the money to rollover.