Chart of the day: Total US Debt

| 21 August 2008 09:00

Back in May, I showed you a chart of Total U.S. Debt which demonstrated that the United States was an increasingly indebted country. This chart was for all domestic debt minus financials and it topped out at about 225% of GDP.

Below is the same chart for the U.S., except this time I have added domestic financial and foreign debt, so it represents all debt outstanding in the United States.

The U.S. Debt to GDP ratio starts out just below 125% in 1952 and rises steadily to an enormous 333.8% by 2008. Needless to say, this is one major problem hampering the deleveraging we are now seeing in the financial sector.

By the way, if you are wondering what the debt total for Q1 2008 was in dollars, it was $47.4 trillion.

Source
Federal Reserve Flow of Funds

avatar About Edward Harrison

Edward Harrison is the founder of Credit Writedowns and a former career diplomat, investment banker and technology executive with over twenty years of business experience. He is also a regular economic and financial commentator on BBC World News, CNBC Television, Business News Network, CBC, Fox Television and RT Television. He speaks six languages, a skill he uses to provide a more global perspective. Edward holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

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