Great Gordon Brown cartoon

From Peter Brookes in the Times

Watch what they do, not what they say.(2)

Darling pledges business support

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7699259.stm


Gordon Brown puts up small business corporation tax by 16% from 19% to 22%
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/mar/22/budget2007.politics5

W@nkers

Nationwide October data out today

Nationwide have released their October data report today here.

The data shows a drop of 1.4% for the month with an annual change of -14.64%. House prices are now down from their peak in October 2007 of £186,044 by over £27,000 or -14.6%.

Good news for first time buyers looking to enter the market as house prices become more affordable. Not so good news for those who overstretched themselves and jumped on the property bandwagon in the last few years.

Dreadful news for all those property speculators who bought second and third properties. Tough. Serves them right for taking property off the market and forcing up prices for first time buyers. With almost 90% of buy to let mortgages being withdrawn from the market place and the government consulting on new landlord rules, now is not the time to be a property speculator.

Maybe Gordon Brown will now pay attention to speculative bubbles and act sooner to prevent them expanding rather than dithering around watching them BOOM and then BUST.

Fionnuala Earley on SKY 30th October 2008

At last Fionnuala Earley from Nationwide has confirmed what I said back in April 2008 here.

She has drawn the 'Treating Customers Fairly' joker.

Lending has been restricted over the last year, but not because of a lack of credit to lend. It has been restricted because lenders are fearful of being hung out to dry under TCF. They have lent too much to borrowers and now that house prices are falling are trying to reign that back in.

Watch her here



This is what I said back in April

4 - TCF or Treating Customers Fairly. TCF is a key principle and a practice any business should follow. However in the last year the regulator has majored on this as part of it's principles based regime. Basically TCF can be used to say to any mortgage adviser or lender - 'You have not treated your customer fairly by allowing such borrowing. You should compensate your customer' all done with hindsight. TCF is basically a principle that can be used to solve any of the regulator's problems, when they get around to noticing the problems.

So the withdrawal of 100% mortgages and the tightening of credit criteria is not to do with the credit crunch, but more to do with TCF in a falling housing market. Lenders know that they have lent too much money on a falling asset without checking incomes and are fearful of being hung out to dry.

We have now got to a point where it does not matter how much money is put into the market, the credit tightening will not relax.

And let us not forget that most of the credit tightening is only tightening the relaxed credit conditions of the last 6 years.

Bank of England mortgage approvals October 2008.

New data out for September 2008 here.

The usual commentary really.

Mortgage approvals for house purchase were 33,000 for September 2008 compared to 101,000 in September 2007 down 67%.

These are 1000 higher than August 2008 and must now signify the bottom of the approvals for home purchase.

EDIT - actually having thought about it a bit more this approval figure was before the recent banking crisis. I don't know anybody or any client who is now considering buying. So I predict that approvals will bottom at 20,000 in January 2009 and quickly recover to 35000 ish by April 2009, before a recovery to 80000 by October 2009.

Just goes to show how reckless the lending was. Gordon Brown was not the only irresponsible one here. Lenders have now adopted their old lending practices which include such crazy rules like-

checking incomes (barking mad)
capping borrowing at 4 times income (crazy tightness)
requiring a deposit (whatever next)
wanting to know how you intend repaying the mortgage (who thought that one up!)

If Gordon Brown wants lenders to lend again maybe he should mark all property down by another 20% and we can get on with sensible lending (see the 4 points above) on sensibly priced property.

If you are a first time buyer, your time is coming. Keep saving for your 5% deposit, because these deals will return in the later part of 2009. House prices will be down another 15%, mortgage deals will be equivalent to rent and the housing market will start a steady climb from Q4 2009.

Good luck.

Negative equity woes

There are reports today from the Bank of England that as many as 1.2 million homeowners face negative equity.

Having listened to SKY reporting this today, it is clear that SKY do not fully understand this.

SKY is reporting that negative equity is only a problem if you are trying to sell. This is not the case.

I'll use Abbey as an example of the problems of negative equity.

Let's say a borrower took out a fixed rate mortgage 2/3 years ago at around 5%. At the time the borrower put down a deposit of 5%.

Today your deal ends and Abbey look to put you on the Standard Variable rate of 7.09% an increase of almost 50% on your mortgage payments. If you are now in negative equity Abbey have no new deals for you and as you are in negative equity it is not possible to remortgage elsewhere.

So negative equity can cause problems even though the borrower may not be selling.

Land registry monthly data - October 2008

Latest data out today here showing another monthly fall of 2.2% with an annual fall of 8.0% now.

The graphs on page 12 show the full horror of house sales after a decade of Gordon Brown's debt binge.

To be honest this data is expected to show negative growth now as the data lags the Halifax and Nationwide data by between 3-6 months.

This data series will still be showing monthly falls 3 months or more after the Halifax starts publishing rising monthly prices again. that is not expected until Q4 2009.

1 year to go.

Gordon Brown more boom and bust squirming

Gordon Brown campaigns in Glenrothes - well sort of

There are reports over the weekend that Gordon has braved the campaign trail in this decisive by-election.

You may remember that last week his wife went door knocking in a bid to boost the Labour vote, so it will come as no surprise that she has trumped him again.

It would appear that Gordon does not even have the bottle to knock on the doors of Labour voters so he has met voters as described in the Guardian article.

The prime minister met six hand-picked Labour voters in a cafe owned by a party supporter next door to Labour's campaign headquarters in a tightly controlled encounter with voters ahead of the 6 November ballot.

I still can't believe that he is our leader.

Gordon Brown joke

A driver is sat in a traffic jam on the motorway when another motorist comes down the queue and knocks on his window.

"What is the hold up" asks the driver

"Terrorists have captured Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling and are demanding a ransom of £10 million or they will douse them in petrol and set light to them. Some of the other motorists have suggested we start a collection, do you want to give?" comes the reply.

"How much are the others contributing?" asks the driver.




"About a gallon each" comes the reply.

On the brink

Third quarter GDP is in today and shows a fall of 0.5%. The previous quarter was flat at 0%.

Technically a recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth, so we are not in a technical recession yet.

Most people on the street know that we are in a downturn. It does not matter if it is called a recession or not.

What is not in doubt is that the fourth quarter will show another fall and a technical recession.

Skinner vs Osbourne

In case you missed the electricity between these two - I hope you enjoy this clip!!

Yvette Cooper gets grilled by Andrew Neil on UK debt

I think this must be Yvette Cooper's worst interview yet. AN corners her on household debt and she has no escape other than to trot out her usual well worn phrases.

Now I know she is not going to answer the question and of course she doesn't, but I think the problem is that the government believe their own spin that debt is not a problem.

If the government do not realise that household debt is a problem, then there is no hope for them to be able to steer us out of this recession.

Watch it here

You have to admire the political skills of Brown and Mandelson

Mandelson as EU trade commissioner mixes with a Russian aluminium tycoon and subsequently EU aluminium tarrifs are reduced.

George Osbourne mixes with same tycoon and comes away with no donation, having asked for no donation apparently.

Yet today the press are camped outside George Osbourne's house wanting more clarification on whether he asked for a donation or not.

Gordon Brown leaves the UK with an enormous debt mountain, a plummeting pound and a recession, yet the BBC business editor Robert Peston asks more question on the Osbourne/Ruskie story.

How do they do it?

Bloomberg warns of a ....

Double C recession

Ooops

Gordon Brown Creates New Measure For Debt

reported here by Fraser Nelson, Gordon Brown has created a new measure for debt that hides the Northern Rock debt off balance sheet and allows him to claim he is still meeting his debt targets.

Are we surprised? Is there any figures that this PM will not fiddle?

Can Gordon Brown end early election speculation?

Trevor Kavanagh writing in the SUN today stokes the new early election speculation further, much to the annoyance of those at Labour Home.

If Labour supporters are keen to kill off any unnecessary speculation they should have a word with their leader.

Here is a clip of Gordon being asked a question last week about an early election. Note his inability to answer even this most simple of questions and leaving the viewer in no doubt that he is considering an early election. (again) Note the welcome return of the 'I'm getting on with the job' reply.

Homeowners to get support

The government have said that homeowners will get support to make sure they are not repossessed.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/

A feeling of deja vu came over me as I started to write this post. Ah here it is a post from the 23rd April 2008 saying the same thing.

So maybe this is an announcement every 6 months that homeowners should be given support, not spelling the support out and leaving it there.

The government knows that if they do not allow lenders to repossess as per the terms and conditions of the mortgage account, then the lenders will increase the risk rating of the mortgage lending and reduce even further the acceptable number of borrowers for mortgage lending.

If the government wants to help, they should allocate money to allow the housing associations first refusal on repossessions and allow the homeowners to become tenants. At what cost? Does it really matter any more? The government is spending money from budgets years ahead and borrowing the rest.

After all the biggest repo bank is Gordon Brown's Northern Rock.

Gordon Brown's house price boom and bust

The second 'boom and bust' video

Gordon Brown's boom and bust

The first of two 'boom and bust' videos



The second video is here

Another quality Matt cartoon

another quality Matt cartoon

Nationwide withdraw mortgage products

Nationwide have confirmed more credit tightening

Mortgage brokers - all products at 85% Loan to Value (LTV) or less

In branch or direct

First time buyers - maximum 90% LTV 2 deals available

Remortgage, homemovers - maximum 85% LTV

existing customers moving home - SVR at 95% LTV, 2 deals at 90% LTV

Must e-mail SKY to persuade them to ask Fionnuala Earley of Nationwide how this affects mortgage availability.

Watch what they do, not what they say.

Last Wednesday the Bank of England cut the bank rate by 0.5% and Gordon Brown and Darling called on lenders to pass the rate cut on to borrowers.

Halifax, Woolwich, Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham & Gloucester all cut their Standard Variable Rate by the full 0.5% to 6.5%

What has Gordon Brown's Northern Rock done? Cut their Standard Variable Rate by a measly 0.19% to 7.34%. Almost a full percentage point higher than other lenders.

This will mostly affect those borrowers who are stuck with Northern Rock in negative equity, on the Standard Variable Rate and unable to remortgage away from them.

This government is all about putting out the right message and very rarely actually delivering.

Gordon Brown at his best will lead to his downfall

Gordon Brown is back to his best, striding confidently around the world stage his hand firmly on the steering wheel.

He is doing what he does best, taxing the country and spending the money. Although this time the money is being spent not on hospitals and schools but on banks.

Recapitalising the banks in this way has to work, it must work, the government will do all that is needed to make it work.

Let us assume that it does work. The Tories have jumped on board this train and can rightly claim to have supported Gordon Brown and his decisions to save the banking system.

Gordon will claim success, but so will the Tories. Experience was needed and we got that experience from both political sides. Unlike Northern Rock, Gordon will not be able to claim any political points.

So now that the banking crisis is solved and the dust settles we will see the true state of the UK economy compared to the rest of the world. Leaving America aside, we will compare badly.

We are the most indebted nation out there. I'm not talking about the government, however scary that is. The credit cards, personal loans and mortgage debt we have as a nation is huge. The taxpayer will not be able to spend the economy out of this mess.

All the time the global crisis is there, our true problems are hidden. Now that oil prices are back to year lows and assuming the banking crisis is resolved, Brown will not be able to hide amongst these global problems.

I have long thought that this whole Gordon Brown era was like the Emperor's new clothes. During the summer of 2008 the commentators started to realise he was naked, but have now had their heads turned again. It will not be long until we see the realisation again.

48 hours until the government figures out the mortgage lending problem

In the press today there is speculation that the government will take stakes in various high street lenders in return for the lenders, lending to small business and house buyers.

Now I have blogged before on why mortgage lending is shot to pieces at the moment in this post, but to summarise

Gordon Brown presided over a mortgage industry that went from lending 3 times provable income with a 5% deposit to an industry that was lending 6 times income, not asking for proof of that income and lending 125% of the property value. A significant loosening of criteria. This pushed up property prices way above their true value.

With the FSA investigating, lenders have gone back to more sensible lending criteria.

The banks will take our tax payer money, the government will demand mortgage lending and the banks will say 'no problem - give us some borrowers with a 5% deposit and property at 4 times their provable income and we will lend'. Only then will the government figure out the problem.

Property prices are suspended at about 20% above where the lenders are lending, falling rapidly and will meet the demand later next year.

The government needs some ideas for how to help the property price and the finance meet quicker if it wants lending to resume sooner.

Time to buy index for September 2008

In September the index stands at 361 unadjusted(U) and 457 adjusted(A)

This gives a guide that house prices are around 36% over valued and that market sentiment pushes that to 45% over valued. DO NOT BUY

That is not to say that house prices will fall by either, but it gives an idea of the direction.

House prices have fallen this month which initially reduced the index. But residential fixed rates increased and buy to let rates increased significantly, which pushed the index up for the first time since June 2008.

With many buy to let deals being withdrawn this month and those that remain seeing large increases to the rates, the demand for property from this market is dropping fast.

The unadjusted index is now down from it's peak of 645 in July 2007

PREDICTION

House prices to continue falling with the Halifax index bottoming at £140,000 in Q4 2009.

In my opinion mortgage lending criteria has pretty much returned to normal even though lenders are still lending above average multipliers and mortgage rates have again returned to a longer term normal level.

The ongoing financial crisis may lead to a collapse of the banking system and society as we know it. Assuming this does not happen, then lenders will never be returning to the days of lending with no deposit or income checks.

House prices are still suspended about 20% above the level of finance that the banks are willing to give out.

Buy to let as one of the key drivers of house prices still does not makes economic sense at current rates. This sector will most likely never return to the heady days of 2007 as the age of irresponsible lending is over.

Daily politics confirms Gordon Brown is psychologically flawed.

Today's Daily Politics was an absolute cracker with a psychologist describing Gordon Brown as deeply insecure and self harming by bringing Mandelson back.

watch the clip here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/7663563.stm

Watch the stunned other guests as she describes him as a compulsive spender with money he does not have.

Why is Gordon Brown so happy at the moment?

Last night Gordon's speech is interrupted by a mobile phone ringing. At this time of national crisis, when investors are fearful of losing their life savings, Gordon thinks it is a good time for a joke.

What a disgrace.

Watch it here.

Halifax data out for September 2008

Month on month house prices are down 1.3%. The Halifax report house prices down 12.4% annually, but they calculate this using this quarter against the quarter a year ago.

The true yearly drop is 13.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis. September 2007 average house price was £198,533 against £172,108 for September 2008. A drop of £26,425 in a year.

The last 12 months has seen the biggest falls ever from the Halifax. The previous biggest 12 month fall was in October 1992 of -8.5%

House prices have fallen 13.8% from the peak in August 2007 13 months ago. It took from May 1989 to July 1995 for house price to fall 13.21% that is 74 months and the bottom of the last housing slump.

This housing crash is now worse than the 89-95 housing crash and we have only just got going.

The last time house prices were at this level was February 2006 at £173,095.

Crown prediction is still house prices to continue falling with the Halifax index bottoming at £140,000 in Q4 2009. A fall of 30% or £59,600 from the peak in August 2007. That would be house prices returning to levels last seen in Q4 2003.

A shock 0.5% interest rate cut!

Well sort of a shock.

I was anticipating a 0.25% cut tomorrow and then another in November with several more next year.

The Australians cutting 1% this week made it seem more likely that we would get a 0.5% cut ourselves.

The cut gave the markets a temporary lift, before falling back again.

Hopefully the banks will not pass this on to savers, encouraging savers to help capitalise the banks.

What odds another 0.5% next month?

Joey Jones of SKY NEWS nails Gordon Brown

Watch the clip below. Joey nails Gordon Brown a beauty and as flustered as ever Gordon trips on his words and wants to create a better spanking system. Great!

Where has Gordon left us after 11 years?

Courtesy of the CIA have a look at the list of countries below with their current account balances listed.

China would be expected to be heading the list with their huge population and Iceland at number 157 are in difficulty.

Can you guess where Gordon Brown has left the UK after 11 years. I'll give you a clue, you have to scroll down a long, long, long way.

These figures are estimates from 2007, before Gordon bought all the banks.

	Rank		Country		Current account balance		Date of Information
	1		China		$ 371,800,000,000		2007 est.
	2		Germany		$ 254,500,000,000		2007 est.
	3		Japan		$ 210,500,000,000		2007 est.
	4		Saudi Arabia		$ 86,620,000,000		2007 est.
	5		Russia		$ 78,310,000,000		2007 est.
	6		Switzerland		$ 72,350,000,000		2007 est.
	7		Norway		$ 64,070,000,000		2007 est.
	8		Kuwait		$ 47,500,000,000		2007 est.
	9		Netherlands		$ 47,310,000,000		2007 est.
	10		Singapore		$ 46,390,000,000		2007 est.
	11		Sweden		$ 37,970,000,000		2007 est.
	12		United Arab Emirates		$ 34,530,000,000		2007 est.
	13		Taiwan		$ 32,880,000,000		2007 est.
	14		Algeria		$ 32,050,000,000		2007 est.
	15		Iran		$ 28,950,000,000		2007 est.
	16		Malaysia		$ 28,930,000,000		2007 est.
	17		Hong Kong		$ 28,040,000,000		2007 est.
	18		Libya		$ 26,380,000,000		2007 est.
	19		Venezuela		$ 20,000,000,000		2007 est.
	20		Thailand		$ 14,920,000,000		2007 est.
	21		Angola		$ 13,580,000,000		2007 est.
	22		Canada		$ 12,670,000,000		2007 est.
	23		Austria		$ 12,030,000,000		2007 est.
	24		Finland		$ 11,400,000,000		2007 est.
	25		Indonesia		$ 11,010,000,000		2007 est.
	26		Qatar		$ 10,410,000,000		2007 est.
	27		Azerbaijan		$ 9,019,000,000		2007 est.
	28		Argentina		$ 7,438,000,000		2007 est.
	29		Chile		$ 7,200,000,000		2007 est.
	30		Brunei		$ 7,101,000,000		2007 est.
	31		Philippines		$ 6,351,000,000		2007 est.
	32		Iraq		$ 6,025,000,000		2007 est.
	33		Korea, South		$ 5,954,000,000		2007 est.
	34		Trinidad and Tobago		$ 5,378,000,000		2007 est.
	35		Israel		$ 5,197,000,000		2007 est.
	36		Luxembourg		$ 4,921,000,000		2007 est.
	37		Oman		$ 4,866,000,000		2007 est.
	38		Uzbekistan		$ 4,615,000,000		2007 est.
	39		Denmark		$ 4,279,000,000		2007 est.
	40		Belgium		$ 3,282,000,000		2007 est.
	41		Bahrain		$ 2,907,000,000		2007 est.
	42		Nigeria		$ 2,514,000,000		2007 est.
	43		Botswana		$ 1,973,000,000		2007 est.
	44		Bolivia		$ 1,796,000,000		2007 est.
	45		Brazil		$ 1,712,000,000		2007 est.
	46		Turkmenistan		$ 1,705,000,000		2007 est.
	47		Gabon		$ 1,552,000,000		2007 est.
	48		Peru		$ 1,516,000,000		2007 est.
	49		Burma		$ 1,427,000,000		2007 est.
	50		Timor-Leste		$ 1,161,000,000		2007 est.
	51		Ecuador		$ 1,064,000,000		2007 est.
	52		Syria		$ 908,000,000		2007 est.
	53		Namibia		$ 805,200,000		2007 est.
	54		Bangladesh		$ 804,700,000		2007 est.
	55		Egypt		$ 500,900,000		2007 est.
	56		Equatorial Guinea		$ 415,000,000		2007 est.
	57		Cuba		$ 240,000,000		2007 est.
	58		British Virgin Islands		$ 134,300,000		1999
	59		Papua New Guinea		$ 125,800,000		2007 est.
	60		Paraguay		$ 119,000,000		2007 est.
	61		Bhutan		$ 116,000,000		2007 est.
	62		Nepal		$ 58,000,000		2007
	63		Lesotho		$ 49,000,000		2007 est.
	64		Cook Islands		$ 26,670,000		2005
	65		Suriname		$ 24,000,000		2007 est.
	66		Palau		$ 15,090,000		FY03/04
	67		Comoros		$ 8,000,000		2007 est.
	68		Guinea-Bissau		$ -6,000,000		2007 est.
	69		Tuvalu		$ -11,680,000		2003
	70		Kiribati		$ -21,000,000		2007 est.
	71		Mongolia		$ -23,000,000		2007 est.
	72		Tonga		$ -23,000,000		2007 est.
	73		Samoa		$ -24,000,000		2007 est.
	74		Swaziland		$ -24,000,000		2007 est.
	75		Micronesia, Federated States of		$ -34,300,000		FY05 est.
	76		Anguilla		$ -42,870,000		2003 est.
	77		Belize		$ -43,000,000		2007 est.
	78		Sao Tome and Principe		$ -55,000,000		2007 est.
	79		Kosovo		$ -58,300,000		2007
	80		Vanuatu		$ -60,000,000		2007 est.
	81		Sierra Leone		$ -63,000,000		2007 est.
	82		Gambia, The		$ -71,000,000		2007 est.
	83		Dominica		$ -72,000,000		2007 est.
	84		Central African Republic		$ -77,000,000		2007 est.
	85		Burundi		$ -101,000,000		2007 est.
	86		Cape Verde		$ -132,600,000		2007 est.
	87		Grenada		$ -138,000,000		2007 est.
	88		Solomon Islands		$ -143,000,000		2007 est.
	89		Cote d'Ivoire		$ -146,000,000		2007 est.
	90		Rwanda		$ -147,000,000		2007 est.
	91		Saint Vincent and the Grenadines		$ -149,000,000		2007 est.
	92		Guyana		$ -157,000,000		2007 est.
	93		Togo		$ -159,000,000		2007 est.
	94		Saint Kitts and Nevis		$ -163,000,000		2007 est.
	95		Chad		$ -171,000,000		2007 est.
	96		Mauritania		$ -184,000,000		2007 est.
	97		Uruguay		$ -185,600,000		2007 est.
	98		Saint Lucia		$ -199,000,000		2007 est.
	99		Eritrea		$ -205,000,000		2007 est.
	100		Antigua and Barbuda		$ -211,000,000		2007 est.
	101		Djibouti		$ -212,000,000		2007 est.
	102		Liberia		$ -224,000,000		2007
	103		Zambia		$ -228,000,000		2007 est.
	104		Macedonia		$ -249,000,000		2007 est.
	105		Barbados		$ -254,000,000		2007 est.
	106		Kyrgyzstan		$ -267,900,000		2007 est.
	107		Seychelles		$ -272,000,000		2007 est.
	108		Laos		$ -285,000,000		2007 est.
	109		Malawi		$ -318,000,000		2007 est.
	110		Niger		$ -321,000,000		2007 est.
	111		Cameroon		$ -325,000,000		2007 est.
	112		Tajikistan		$ -351,000,000		2007 est.
	113		Yemen		$ -362,000,000		2007 est.
	114		Congo, Democratic Republic of the		$ -402,000,000		2007 est.
	115		Mauritius		$ -408,300,000		2007 est.
	116		Guinea		$ -424,000,000		2007 est.
	117		Malta		$ -424,500,000		2007 est.
	118		Benin		$ -441,000,000		2007 est.
	119		Mali		$ -446,000,000		2007 est.
	120		Haiti		$ -467,000,000		2007 est.
	121		Maldives		$ -472,000,000		2007
	122		Cambodia		$ -506,300,000		2007 est.
	123		Fiji		$ -507,000,000		2007 est.
	124		Armenia		$ -571,400,000		2007 est.
	125		Zimbabwe		$ -649,000,000		2007 est.
	126		Moldova		$ -694,700,000		2007 est.
	127		Burkina Faso		$ -706,000,000		2007 est.
	128		Uganda		$ -744,700,000		2007 est.
	129		Mozambique		$ -795,100,000		2007 est.
	130		Ethiopia		$ -826,800,000		2007 est.
	131		Madagascar		$ -890,000,000		2007 est.
	132		Tunisia		$ -905,000,000		2007 est.
	133		Nicaragua		$ -1,001,000,000		2007 est.
	134		Sri Lanka		$ -1,019,000,000		2007 est.
	135		El Salvador		$ -1,119,000,000		2007 est.
	136		Kenya		$ -1,147,000,000		2007 est.
	137		Albania		$ -1,202,000,000		2007 est.
	138		Honduras		$ -1,225,000,000		2007 est.
	139		Bahamas, The		$ -1,442,000,000		2007 est.
	140		Senegal		$ -1,458,000,000		2007 est.
	141		Congo, Republic of the		$ -1,491,000,000		2007 est.
	142		Costa Rica		$ -1,499,000,000		2007 est.
	143		Ghana		$ -1,549,000,000		2007 est.
	144		Panama		$ -1,577,000,000		2007 est.
	145		Guatemala		$ -1,663,000,000		2007 est.
	146		Jamaica		$ -1,830,000,000		2007 est.
	147		Morocco		$ -1,834,000,000		2007 est.
	148		Tanzania		$ -1,856,000,000		2007 est.
	149		Bosnia and Herzegovina		$ -1,939,000,000		2007 est.
	150		Georgia		$ -2,044,000,000		2007 est.
	151		Lebanon		$ -2,046,000,000		2007 est.
	152		Cyprus		$ -2,144,000,000		2007 est.
	153		Slovenia		$ -2,181,000,000		2007 est.
	154		Dominican Republic		$ -2,231,000,000		2007 est.
	155		Jordan		$ -2,767,000,000		2007 est.
	156		Belarus		$ -2,876,000,000		2007 est.
	157		Iceland		$ -3,189,000,000		2007 est.
	158		Sudan		$ -3,447,000,000		2007 est.
	159		Estonia		$ -3,771,000,000		2007 est.
	160		Slovakia		$ -3,998,000,000		2007 est.
	161		Czech Republic		$ -4,534,000,000		2007 est.
	162		Croatia		$ -4,850,000,000		2007 est.
	163		Lithuania		$ -5,260,000,000		2007 est.
	164		Mexico		$ -5,525,000,000		2007 est.
	165		Colombia		$ -5,862,000,000		2007 est.
	166		Ukraine		$ -5,918,000,000		2007 est.
	167		Latvia		$ -6,231,000,000		2007 est.
	168		Serbia		$ -6,889,000,000		2007 est.
	169		Vietnam		$ -6,993,000,000		2007 est.
	170		Kazakhstan		$ -7,184,000,000		2007 est.
	171		Hungary		$ -8,018,000,000		2007 est.
	172		Pakistan		$ -8,255,000,000		2007 est.
	173		Bulgaria		$ -8,530,000,000		2007 est.
	174		New Zealand		$ -10,230,000,000		2007 est.
	175		India		$ -12,110,000,000		2007 est.
	176		Ireland		$ -14,120,000,000		2007 est.
	177		Poland		$ -15,910,000,000		2007 est.
	178		South Africa		$ -20,630,000,000		2007 est.
	179		Portugal		$ -21,750,000,000		2007 est.
	180		Romania		$ -23,020,000,000		2007 est.
	181		France		$ -31,250,000,000		2007 est.
	182		Turkey		$ -37,580,000,000		2007 est.
	183		Greece		$ -44,400,000,000		2007 est.
	184		Italy		$ -51,030,000,000		2007 est.
	185		Australia		$ -56,780,000,000		2007 est.
	186		United Kingdom		$ -119,200,000,000		2007 est.
	187		Spain		$ -145,300,000,000		2007 est.
	188		United States		$ -731,200,000,000		2007 est.