By the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become a has-been power whose glory days as the world's superpower were well behind them.
They had been supplanted the French, the British, and the Russian empires in all matters of economic, military, and diplomatic strength. Much of this was due to the Ottoman Empire's massive debt burden.
In 1868, the Ottoman government spent 17% of its entire tax revenue just to pay interest on the debt. And they were well past the point of no return where they had to borrow money just to pay interest on the money they had already borrowed. The increased debt meant the interest payments also increased. And three years later in 1871, the government was spending 32% of its tax revenue just to pay interest.
By 1877, the Ottoman government was spending 52% of its tax revenue just to pay interest. And at that point they were finished. They defaulted that year.
This is a common story throughout history.
The French government saw a meteoric rise in their debt throughout the late 1700s. By 1788, on the eve of the French Revolution, they spent 62% of their tax revenue to pay interest on the debt.
Charles I of Spain had so much debt that by 1559, interest payments exceeded ordinary revenue of the Habsburg monarchy. Spain defaulted four times on its debt before the end of the century.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that an unsustainable debt burden soundly tolls the death knell of a nation's economy, and its government.
Unfortunately, it can sometimes take a rocket scientist to figure out what the real numbers are; governments have a vested interest in not being transparent about their debts and interest payments.
In the Land of the Free, for example, the government routinely doesn't count interest payments that they make to the Social Security Trust Fund.
They've managed to convince people that those debts don't matter 'because we owe it to ourselves.'
Apparently in their minds, solemn promises made to retirees simply don't count.
It's like a person who is in debt up to his eyeballs with both credit card companies and family members has no compunction about stiffing Grandpa.
Obligations are obligations, no matter who they're owed to.
Taking this into account, total US interest payments in Fiscal Year 2013 were a whopping $415 billion, roughly 17% of total tax revenue. Just like the Ottoman Empire was at in 1868.
Here's the thing, though - it's inappropriate to look at total tax revenue when we're talking about making interest payments.
The IRS collected $2.49 trillion in taxes last year (net of refunds). But of this amount, $891 billion was from payroll tax.
According to FICA and the Social Security Act of 1935, however, this amount is tied directly to funding Social Security and Medicare. It is not to be used for interest payments.
Based on this data, the amount of tax revenue that the US government had available to pay for its operations was $1.599 trillion in FY2013.
This means they actually spent approximately 26% of their available tax revenue just to pay interest last year... a much higher number than 17%.
This is an unbelievable figure. The only thing more unbelievable is how masterfully they understate reality... and the level of deception they employ to conceal the truth.
This game is set to go bust and rather soon, as the HFT issue has risen to the level of some public attention, not much, but even a whiff of truth in a room pack with lies is like starting a fire on a windy day in a dry forest that hasn't burned in nearly a century... yet there are always plenty of fools who act as if they've never seen a fire before.
In this case, the interest is paid by debt issuance, which in theory is limitless, but in practice always a matter of the 'con' or confidence in the game, thus 'con game'... how long can the fraudsters keep the attention of the public and all the other central bankers so that they continue to play by our rules, to our advantage. This gameplan seems to be slipping among the BRICS currently, especially in given our psychopathic desire to establish our NWO/GPS at all costs in time for the big show, of which they don't seem to know much, only that it is required of them to finish what they've started... or else.... ??? They really don't need to know now do they? And if they really expect to be 'saved' when the fear factor actually presents itself, then they are bigger fools than the fools they follow, but why would it be any different?
The question is when the dollar supremacy game collapses in upon itself, which looks to be rather soon as the new Russian CBR gold coin and Iran $20 billion deal attests to. Can't you just imagine the pressure in DC and NATO to press on no matter what? Like any addict, they can't help themselves and their fate is obvious and inevitable, which is why it all seems to be happening in slow motion. They can't break out of the frequency fence that encases them within. Soon they will have to turn on each other as no other venue is left open for them to attack. Something tells me, the smart ones have or will be soon leaving town for the welfare of their families, or some such nonsense, as like animals that smell or sense a fire or volcano, they will flee as fast as they can leaving operations to their junior partners, who know and sense even less.
So, IMO, the amount spent on interest is meaningless except as a warning or sign of the times, what page of the script we are on etc... not many left as those on the periphery like the BRICS look to leave town before it burns down to the ground.