The USA is in deep debt.  The UK just went £1 Trillion into debt.  Most of Europe is in deep debt, Italy and Greece in particular, and the whole Eurozone financial crisis is putting the economic recovery plans of not only the UK but the USA at risk too.

In mid January the credit rating for France was dropped, which added yet another factor, threatening the Eurozone bailout plan.

It just seems to be a never ending downhill spiral, and yet if you step back and think about it, this is just crazy.

The once wealthiest countries in the world are deep in debt.  They are also trying to help the poorer countries in Europe who are in even worse debt, which is dragging them down further in turn.

What I would like to know though is who is all this debt owed to?  If the USA and UK owe vast sums of money and most of Europe too, then who is the creditor?

It can’t be the Russians, because they are deep in their own debt crisis.  Maybe it’s the Chinese and a master plan to control the world.

Actually a lot of the US debt is in Treasury Securities, which are funded by wealthy investors, as well as corporations, retirement funds and governments around the world.  Surprisingly enough, about 25% of the national debt in the USA is held by foreign governments, the largest being Japan, then China, the UK and then the major oil producing nations.

In the UK, about 40% of the national debt is owed to insurance companies and pension funds, and a whopping 35% to foreign investors,and then next in line comes the Bank Of England.

Another big question comes to mind, “Who are these foreign investors who have such a big stake in the UK?”.

Is it Middle Eastern individuals, companies or governments? Is it private investors like Bill Gates? Is it the Russian Mafia maybe?

The interesting thing is that no amount of Googling seems to throw up any documents with information on how this is made up.

It’s a little worrying don’t you think, that all of our countries are fast going downhill financially, and a siezable chunk of the debt is owed to foreigners.  So what happens if there is ever a “crunch day” when the debt is called on?  Could our countries then come under the thumb of foreign powers?  It would probably make a good fiction story, but I hope it never comes true…

Sources:

The Bond Market Explained

UK National Debt

Who Owns The US National Debt

The World Is Running Out Of Money – But Who Do We Owe It To? is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

Today, if all goes well, I should reach the covetted level of Clout 10, which means that I have had over 330,000 page views on 707 articles, and reached the top of the ladder.

Since joining Associated Content the site has undergone a lot of changes, being taken over by Yahoo!, and finally after a year of changes and countless problems if looks like they are heading in the right direction again.

In the last two years I have written about many topics, including my favorite Travel and Humor ones, but also Religion and Politics, which have never really interested me much in the past, but which in the last few years have prompted me to write more about them.

I hope that you have time to browse through my articles, which you can find on the now renamed Yahoo Contributor Network, and I have to commemorate reaching this goal I have created a page on Squidoo about Tony Payne On Yahoo Voices, which lists all my articles as well as giving some good writing tips and ways in which writing on Yahoo has helped me with ideas for creating lenses on Squidoo.

Another Writing Milestone Is Imminent is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

Our garage is at the back of the house at the end of a long alley.  I have to back the car all the way up the alley, and in the winter time it’s rather muddy there, and for that reason plus to deter intruders, we have a security light on the corner of the garage.

However, although the security light comes on ok after it gets dark, it no sooner goes off than it comes back on again immediately, all through the night, which not only runs up the electric bill but annoys us and the neighbours as well.

So, on New Years Day, having purchased a new security light, I tried to fit it, which ought to have been a simple process, but unfortunately my luck never works out that way.

I went out to the garage mid-morning with good intentions, and began to disassemble the old light, having turned off the electricity to the garage.  I hadn’t spent more than 15 minutes on this, and had removed the light, when it began to drizzle.  So I put the lamps and tools in the garage, and went back into the house to wait for the rain to stop.

Instead of stopping, it just got heavier, and during a break I went out to the garage to retrieve the light and tools, since the garage roof, which is made of corrugated metal, was covered in condensation, and the constant drips were enough to ruin the light and to make everything rusty.

After that the heavens opened, and it rained continuously until well after dark.

The following day was bright and sunny, with no rain forecast, and so I endeavoured to try and complete the job. 

Where the wires came out from the concrete wall of the garage, I had noticed as soon as I had removed the old light the day before, that a horde of wood lice scurried into the hole and disappeared into the garage, and so prior to fixing the new light I thought it prudent to put some sealant in the hole to try and keep the electrics dry and free of bugs.

I had a tube of caulking that I had only part used a year before, but unfortunately the cap was full of dried up filler, and it took me a good 30 minutes to clean this out so that I could use it.   Into the hole the caulking went, but unfortunately the added pressure I needed to use because the caulking was old caused some of it to ooze out of the bottom of the container, and all over the caulking gun, which was virtually brand new.  

I tried to clean this, but  it was pretty evident that at best I could only do a bad job, and so with regret both the tube of caulking and the caulking gun went out into the trash.

Fortunately the new light looked like it was a newer model of the old one, and had the same shape, but were the holes to mount it in the same place?  Of course not!  The old light had holes in the top left and bottom right, the new one had them top right and bottom left.  So now I had to drill holes to fit the thing as well.

I have some good new masonry drill bits, but my drill is not an SDS one, and with the wall of the garage being made out of concrete blocks, it took me most of the drill battery to drill one hole, and the second one just didn’t want to co-operate, until such point where not only were my hands cramped, the battery went flat.   I changed battery, but guess what, the spare one was even flatter than the first, so I had to put that on charge, which takes about 24 hours.

So that was the end of that, and today after a long break for the holidays it’s back to work, with no light in the alley, and during the night and day terrific wind and rain.

The task is now going to have to wait until this coming weekend, when I will be armed with a couple of fresh batteries, and hope that my not so trusty drill will do the trick this time.

I don’t know why the simplest of tasks have to prove so complicated, but it’s the story of my life unfortunately.  Somewhere where has to be someone who has the opposite side of the coin, so I hope that they are grateful for my taking on more than my fair share of problems so that they can have an easier time of things.

Is this something that you can relate to?  If so, I would like to hear what you have to say, so please leave a comment.

Security Light Blues is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

This amazing computer controlled exhibition is located in a historic warehouse district in the centre of Hamburg, and features dozens of working trains, a full working airport with planes taking off and landing, fire engines attending a fire, a cruise ship sailing up the river, a football stadium, and so many other features that are too many to list.

Currently the layouts, which span 3 floors and 6,400 sq.metres have over 950 trains alone.  The statistics on this place and it’s features are unbelievable, and countless hours of work have gone into it.  Take a look HERE at what this exhibition includes.

Any lover of model railways and miniature layouts on seeing this must think that they have died and gone to heaven.  It’s definitely worth making a trip to Hamburg for don’t you think?

Below is a 5 minute short video of some of the items that are in this exhibition.  It must be even more amazing to see first hand.  I know it’s on my bucket list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s

Model Railway Enthusiasts Will Think They Have Died And Gone To Heaven is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

Very often these days families have spread far and wide, making it harder with every year to get everyone together for a family celebration during the holidays.  In addition so many families have been through divorces, that can cause rifts during the holidays, especially when children have to choose which parents to visit on Christmas Day.

Our family is one of those where both divorce and moving away from the area where the family grew up has meant that getting everyone together for the holidays is pretty much impossible any more.

It’s sad really, because when I was growing up, we were the only ones on my Mother’s side of the family who lived away from the area that the family had belonged in for generations, and we always made it to my Grandmother’s house for Christmas, as did everyone else.

I have many memories of Christmases Past which I wrote about on Yahoo Voices.

I hope you have time to follow the story there and to learn about our family Christmas traditions, now fading into distant memory, but which I hope by writing about has helped to keep those memories alive for future generations.

Christmas Traditions And Memories Of Growing Up is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

Debbie and I took a trip out to The New Forest on Saturday, to the village of Burley in the heart of the forest, where we went for a nice walk in one of the heathland parts of the forest, then went to The Queen’s Head Pub for a bite to eat, before browsing the little shops in the village, several of which have a witchcraft theme, the village being linked to a white witch, Cybil Leek who lived in the village in the 1950′s.

I just downloaded the photographs that we took, which include several taken inside The Queen’s Head, that we thought might be useful to add to Debbie’s Squidoo page on Pub Grub.

The curious thing is that I made sure nobody was in the pictures, because Debbie wasn’t too happy about taking pictures inside the pub without asking, and in the first picture there is a woman, however she just doesn’t look right.

I took the photos to capture the chalk boards with the menu specials on, and in the first photo you can clearly see a woman, but the outline of her hair looks like it has erased part of the price of one of the menu items.   Even stranger though is the fact that she isn’t in the second picture, but the price is still showing as if it has been partly erased.

Is this just a coincidence I wonder, or did we capture a ghost on film (well digital media)?

The pub is just one of a number of locations in the New Forest that is supposed to be haunted, which I did not know until I did some research this evening.

If you click on the photos below, they link to the full size originals, but BE WARNED these are 3.5mb each in size, so they might take a while to load.

Try zooming in on the woman, she just looks wrong and sort of ghostly.  Unfortunately I took the photos without flash so they are a bit grainy which doesn’t help.

In the second photo from a slightly different angle the woman has gone, however the chalkboard for the White Chocolate Pistachio Cheesecake still looks as if the shadow of her head is there, and the price has been partly erased, or at least it looks like it.

So what do you think?

Is this a ghost, or just a coincidence.

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Did We Take A Photograph Of A Ghost At The Weekend? is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

Because December is holiday season, and because I enjoy humor and trivia, I have been working on some fun pages on Squidoo that I hope you enjoy.

The first is a seasonal one, December Quizzes, which is a whole set of 3 question quiz rounds that have a December theme.  If this proves to be popular, I might just repeat this for the rest of the months in the year.  Lots of people like historical trivia, and I tried to pick some fun questions that you might not find on every other December quiz.

The second one is Movie Riddles, where I have given clues to a number of well known movies in poetic form.  The rhymes are fun, and have some helpful clues as to the movies, but can you guess them I wonder?

I hope you have time to take these quizzes, if not now then later as Christmas approaches.

Have Fun

Off The Record Is Approaching It’s 3rd Birthday is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

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Today Is The Day To Order Web Hosting is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

Yes I’m English, but I moved to the USA in 1994 and lived there for 15 years, only returning to the UK in 2009, so as well as now being a dual American/British Citizen, I had 15 years to adopt the American lifestyle and to get used to spending the last weekend in November having a much earned break.

You would think that by being in the UK for over 2 years I would have got over this feeling by now, and I am sure that I would have, if it were not for having many friends and contacts who live in the USA, as well as my two daughters, whose Christmas presents I was shopping for Thanksgiving Day online to try and get some good deals.

In addition to this, I have been creating lenses (pages) on Squidoo that are related to the Black Friday sales, and reading lots of other pages about how people celebrate Thanksgiving, so it’s difficult to cut yourself off from everything that’s happening across the pond.

So here I am sitting in an office, on a day that’s not terribly busy, a lovely sunny day too, which is fairly rare for November in the UK, and I wish that I could have been at home so that Debbie and I could have gone for a lovely walk in The New Forest.

We are planning to do that tomorrow, but the weather man already said it’s going to be a chilly night tonight, and knowing our luck it will also be cloudy as well.  At this time of the year in the UK you have to pick your moments, you can’t always afford to put things off until tomorrow, because the weather might not be on your side.

Well those are my thoughts for this day after Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone that we know in the USA had a wonderful day yesterday.  Meantime instead of wishing that we too had a 4-day weekend, I am going to think ahead to next Easter, when we get our 4-day weekend, and in the USA it’s just another 2-day one.

Today Seems Kind Of Odd is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony

 Everything Twilight on DVD From $9.99 plus Free Shipping

Everything Twilight on DVD From $9.99 plus Free Shipping is a post from: Off The Record With Debbie & Tony