One of the world's leading magazines, The Economist has launched a “Global Debt Clock." This excellent initiative is similar to the US Federal Debt Clock in Time Square and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's DebtClock.ca.

Beyond the overall numbers updating every few seconds, The Economist's Global Debt Clock includes a map of the world where by simply holding the curser over a country, you can find out it's: total public debt, public debt per capita, debt as a percentage of GDP (the economy) and the annual change in public debt. These important statistics are the basic measurements by which one can compare their government’s performance on debt with other countries. 

Canada politicians have long bragged about how Canada stacks up with other OECD countries on federal debt, but it is mostly hogwash. To compare Canada's federal debt with the United States’ is to compare apples and oranges, while comparing it to France's total state debt is comparing apples and steaks.

Measuring debt between countries is best done by comparing total public indebtedness per capita and total public indebtedness as a percentage of GDP. By the first measure, Canada - with $36,900 - is worse than the United States at $27,500 and only marginally ahead of bankrupt Greece with $34,100.  Using total public indebtedness as a percentage of GDP, Canada (82%) is much worse than the United States (58%) but trailing Greece (128%). 

To put a point on it, the next time Canadian politicians tell you that everything is fine, especially compared to our trading partners, tell them to set their alarm clock to October 6, 2010 at 1:30 PM. They'll wake up at $1.25-trillion (US) in the afternoon.