Think again. Let this be a continuous lesson to those who think public finances are 100% transparent. We are constantly bombarded with glib calculations about the size of public debt and its ratio to the GDP of the home country. Except countries cannot help but to take on the debt of well-connected private enterprises. Whether they do it for the good of the people or to cover their own past mistakes is irrelevant. Once a bank like Dexia (France/Belgium) is bailed out, it debts become obligations of the state. Ireland, for instance, had the lowest debt/gdp ratio in the eurozone until they decided to bailout those black-holes they call banks in 2008.
Which is why it is useful to know that countries like France, Italy, and Spain have banks and other politically connected institutions with debts that, when taken cumulatively, exceed the GDP of the host country.
This article makes an attempt to illustrate the problem. Beware, however, of taking the numbers as precise. Macro aggregates are notorious for their large accounting errors and apple-to-oranges comparisons. In addition, they are manipulated by many (all?) governments.
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