Hi all,I wondered if any economists (or people who know) out...

Hi all,

I wondered if any economists (or people who know) out there could explain something for me...

I know the US National Debt is over 8 trillion and is around 70% of their GDP, and will ultimately bring them and their dollar down (and probably gold up)...

Just recently Peter Costello said that he paid the last of Australian debt off (May 8 Bloomberg -- Australian Treasurer Peter Costello, who last month wiped out the A$96 billion ($74 billion) national debt he inherited 10 years ago, will probably cut income taxes tomorrow as record company profits swell government coffers) but according to The Australian today (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19104379-7583,00.html), our national debt is 500 billion dollars. Excerpt from that article reads: "First and foremost, there is no strategy to rein in the current account deficit, which is running regularly at more than 6 per cent of gross domestic product and which has led to a national debt of about $500billion, still rocketing upwards. That's $23,000 for every man, woman and child in Australia."

??? I thought we paid it off?

Secondly, what does a large current account deficit or national debt mean for Australia and is it as significant to us as it is to the US?

Cheers,
Funky