links for 2010-04-15

The world's borrowing woes are shifting from developing economies to their advanced counterparts, many of which are exiting the crisis shouldering heavy debt burdens. Tackling those burdens is a war that a host of governments will fight for years to come, with or without the involvement of the IMF.

Soaring debt, unsustainable government spending, slashed credit ratings. The problems that forced Europe to pledge a financial bailout for Greece sound all too familiar in Japan, one of the world's biggest economies. Japan's budget, announced last week o kick off the fiscal year, promises to spend a record trillion dollars, and the government must issue a record ¥44.3-trillion of new bonds this year.

Forty-seven percent. That’s the portion of American households that owe no income tax for 2009. The number is up from 38 percent in 2007, and it has become a popular talking point on cable television and talk radio. With Tax Day coming on Thursday, 47 percent has become shorthand for the notion that the wealthy face a much higher tax burden than they once did while growing numbers of Americans are effectively on the dole. Neither one of those ideas is true. They rely on a cleverly selective reading of the facts. So does the 47 percent number.