Which rich country is closest to bankruptcy? Four of the G7 never have to go broke: they make their savers pay instead. Three can't print their own money. One of those can't lean on its own savers either, and its own lawmakers just voted down its tax plan. We ranked all seven G7 economies by who actually pays when the bill comes due. For 35 straight months, the safest place an American family could keep savings, a US Treasury bill, paid less than prices rose. This summer Japan's yen hit its weakest level since 1986, and Tokyo spent a record $96 billion defending it, with Washington stepping in beside it for the first time in 28 years. In 2011 the European Central Bank sent Italy's prime minister a secret letter telling him how to write his budget. And the ECB's own 2022 rulebook says its bond buying stops if the trouble is "due to country fundamentals."