National Honesty Index

There exist ways of judging debt repayment in a nation and comparing them, but I know of no generalized index of honesty. It is said that people are the same everywhere but this just isn't true. Different cultures value repayment of debt differently. Some nations enforce repayment differently. One country may have strict laws protecting the consumer from credit collection, another may throw the debtor to the wolves. One culture may value "wit" in the form of keeping anything you can and cheating people, another may value honesty in the repayment of every debt great or small. This is aside from enormously differing economic conditions and fiscal policies. A person with no credit history who has owed $50 for one month has a different chance of repaying that debt between France and China. And even between Paris and Viviers, France.

This index would help justify that difference. It would consist of a smoothed percentage by relative credit report, relative economic conditions (improving or declining economy for the borrower or company's economic class) and local area (say an arbitrary 100 kilometers for sufficient data) of how likely a debt is to be repaid.

Now we can properly judge the financial condition of an unbundled collection of debts and set interest rates accordingly. We can also better judge the strength of national currencies based on the qualities, not just quantities, of consumer debt.