if person A owes 10 dollars to B, B owes 10 to C and C owes 10 to A, there's a total of a $30 debt that can be paid off with a single $10. A lot of countries a

if person A owes 10 dollars to B, B owes 10 to C and C owes 10 to A, there's a total of a $30 debt that can be paid off with a single $10. A lot of countries and companies have a lot of debt, but at the same time they're also often owed. So, from those numbers alone it's impossible to know what the actual situation is.