What would the Price to Earnings ratio be for the United States?

You can’t compare government operations to that of a corporation. You would have to take a ratio of taxation vs. level of services and as a percentage of GDP, and then compare it to other nations.

Who would want to buy us?

The US dollar has weakened to the point where some markets have stopped taking it as a serious currency. Constant earnings? Not really. As for hard assets, we also have trillions in liabilities. Add in the uncertainty of our instability (compared to, say, McDonalds) and the US really isn’t that good an investment.

For a P/E ratio, you need a P. For a P you need a competitive market with a buyer, you need supply and demand. There is a supply of 1, and there is no demand.

Of course there is demand. Our economy is still not only viable but is responsible for most of the growth of all the other nations around the world in the last century. Our assets are inumerous and would number many times our debt. So how do I stop listening to the rhetoric and get some help on this point. I am trying to see how our debt ratio stacks up to the actual net worth of the United States of America. I maybe mistaken but compared with other nations we are still among the highest in terms of wealth and value. Making alot of this “Chicken Little” attitude ref “the dollar is falling the dollar is falling” nonsense.

Of course there is a demand to purchase the United States? I see. And I’m the Queen of Romania.

well your highness. As all attempts to remove the dollar as the world wide currency have failed. The money supply cannot and will not suffer the fates that everyone decries or it would be the end of the Entire Capitalist system. We would truly go back to chickens for doctors appts.

@dpworkin Sure there is a demand. Not to purchase the whole US but US currency, US products, and US companies. That demand ebbs and flows. Thus the value of the dollar ebbs and flows. “Iti multumesc foarte mult”
As a first step we can look at our total exports. Presumably those are being purchased by outsiders. Next we need to assume the profit ratio from those exports.
Then we need to figure the net worth of the country. I’ll bet we can make some estimate. This is a great economics question.
Handle it like a Fermi problem and make many estimates.

Oh, Wow! I found a great site! US Bureau of Economic Analysis

You can get lost in there. I just checked total exports and found this quarterly update for first quarter 2010.

Our exports were $305.7 billion Our imports were $456.9 billion
The surplus on services increased to $36.0 billion.

I think you get the idea. You can look around in there and maybe come up with a good answer. Let us know what you find out. I’m guessing the US did not make a profit.
So the P/E ratio is NA.

There are plenty of metrics you can use to describe the economy of any country. Price/Earnings Ratio is not one of them. Sorry.