Not with the Irish economy going the way it's going.

*Makes whistle noise with explosion at end to audibly represent "bombing"*

But I think that's partially why it's depressing, I know California's economy is going downhill, but ours is going downhill just as fast.

Not exactly surprising, Ireland holding top spot in external debt per capita, which is in today's situation is more meaningful indicator than external debt to GDP =) Well over half a million USD if I remember it correctly. And yes, Portugal, Spain, Greece are all there as well in top-20.

Debt is not the problem...it is the growth rate of the debt that is the problem;.

For the record

British GDP

2007 2,799,040,362,405 (High Point)

2009 2,174,529,808,278

Californa

2006(couldn't find 2007) 1,812,968   (for refrence UK was about 2,400,000,000)

2009 1,891,260,000,000 

So... seems more like UK drop combined with just California slow crawl.

Of course with 1.5 billions in unpaid pensions... and all sorts of other debt problems... I wouldn't be surprised if California started to drop rapidly.  I hear senators are working on State bankruptcy laws just for the occasion.  (Well and a few other states.)

I am a resident of California, the world's 8th largest economy.Formerly a resident of Oregon and their fine higher education system, but California born and raised.

Source: http://econpost.com/californiaeconomy/california-economy-ranking-among-world-economies

I am not going to address this nonsense of California going the way of Greece. We have enough right leaning California haters writing for the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and the Weekly Standard. They gladly prop up welfare states like Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi because they are solid Republican states, but forget that Democratic states such as California and New York are subsidizing those God fearing, welfare Republican states via Federal tax dollars.

Source: http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html

Source: http://scatter.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/red-state-blue-state-welfare-state-subsidizing-state/

Regarding state bankruptcy, it is a political canard aimed to defund and disempower the 1st Amendment rights of citizens in each state to "peaceably assemble" in unions. Republicans and tea baggers want this state bankruptcy legislation to pass so that states would have to dissolve public employee unions in order to cut budgets, cut consitutionally (state) protected public employee pensions, and allow Republican interest groups to fill the power vacuum leftover from the dissolved. overwhelmingly Democratic public employee unions.

The problem is, Obama has the "shut the eff up" card AKA the presidential veto. In order to override a presidential veto, there needs to be a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the US Congress meaning Republicans need 292 House members (They currently have 242 vs. 193 Dem) and 67 of the 100 US Senators to vote yes in overturning a presidential veto.

In the end, this is shameless political theatre just like the repeal of Obama's healthcare bill. They know Obama has the "shut the eff up" card, they don't have any meaningful influence with enough Democrats to overturn a veto, and they hope they can drag it out on Fox News well until the 2012 election. Well baby, it ain't going to happen, plenty of news between now and then.

Source: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/pdf/con001.pdf

Very interesting. I think it just goes to show just how big the American economy is. With all the doom and gloom and the rise of China people often forget that the US economy is still by far the largest.

What we really have to consider here, though, is currency fluctuations. Back in  07 the pound bought over two dollars at a few points... artificially inflating what British GDP when valued in dollars.

Just one of the many reasons why using GDP to measure and compare standards of living is flawed.

As long as California controls the tech industry, entertainment industry, and has copious amounts of farmland, their economy isn't going anywhere. Thinking that they're going to slide to a GDP comparable to second-rate nations is laughable.

But the doom and gloom had nothing to do with being the largest economy...the doom was about the hit the economy got and how this would make the living standards of the average citizen worse....and that happened.. and the doom still exist;..  because nobody knows the future...

The economy may grow yearly 2-3% but will this also mean tha the living standard of the average citizen will increase? Joe does not care that the Economy is growing what Joe care about is that in the next five years he still has to stand or not in line at Old Sonoma Road for some food stamps because his full time job does not earn enough;.

Ah ha, thanks for the research Kasz. So there is some validity in my statement, California hasn't fallen, but the UK has had a big drop (which we all knew any way).