Behold the fund-tastic four: Ireland, Greece, Spain and... the US? These are the four countries that in the past four years have accumulated the greatest deficit as a % of GDP (and yes, at just under 50%, the US is worse than Spain whose cumulative deficit has been over 40% of GDP), which in turn they have had to fund with what else: new debt. The chart explains the scramble to force rates across the world to all time lows: a necessity to allow continued deficit funding, even if by doing so, the monetary authorities have made any economic growth impossible as true inflation (coupled with a rise in funding costs and ... (full story)