Total Debt (Public and Private) in the United States, Euro Zone, China, Japan and the U.K.

This graph shows the total debt (government, households and firms) for the biggest economies in the world. First, what I think is remarkable is that total debt is for the developing world (except Japan) all around 250 percent of GDP. Second, total debt did not decline since the crisis. In Japan and China (perhaps as expected) it is even rising again.

BBVA Research

Exploding U.S. Student Loans

Student loans have more than doubled in the five years between 2006 and 2011. Which means a growth rate of about 15 percent per year. With this growth rate total student loans are set to reach one trillion dollars very soon.

Business Insider

Non-financial U.S. Total Debt

This graph, with data from the United States Federal Reserve, shows the total Credit Market Debt Owed. In other words, this is the total debt outstanding in the United States. That includes both public and private debt, with private debt consisting of households, financial companies and non-financial companies.

You can see that since the 1970s the growth of total debt (red line) started to exceed the growth in the national income. Now total market debt is about four times as high as the national income (GDP).

Business Insider

United States Sectoral Balance Sheets (1985-2012)

As you can see running up to the crisis households massively increased their borrowing. The government also had substantial deficits in the nineties and after the millennium. The corporate sector was on average almost in balance. Since the crisis a dramatic increase in savings by the private sector made the public sector increase its deficit.

Richard Koo

Spain Sectoral Balance Sheets

Households (since 1997) and the corporate (since 1999) sector massively increased their borrowing. A big part of the financing of the increased borrowing came from the rest of the world that increased it's savings in Spain by a huge amount. On the contrast the Spanish government decreased spending dramatically. During the crisis the government had to step in because of the high rise in private savings (and lower consumption and investments).

Richard Koo

Buildup of Total Debt (Consumers, Companies & Gov.) in 80s, 90s and 00s

In the left part of the graph you can see the total debt development for the United States across the Household, Corporate, Government and Government Sponsored Entity sectors. You can see that Great Depression levels are being reached again.

Not for every country data about debt levels are available for such a long period. There is data available however from 1980. In the right panel you can see the debt buildup for the three sectors combined (excluding financial sector) per decade as a percentage of GDP. You can see that from 1980-1990 Belgium, Sweden, Italy and Japan had the highest debt buildup. From 1990-2000 Portugal, Spain, Germany and Italy had the highest increase. From 2000 until 2010 however, Portugal, Spain, U.K., France, U.S. and Greece were among the countries with the highest buildup in their debt across the three sectors.

Household Debt as a Percentage of GDP (Developed and Emerging Countries)

You can see in the graph from The Economist (with data from Mckinsey) that the Anglo-Saxon countries have the highest household debt of selected countries. The emerging countries have the lowest household debt. As you were able to see in this post with total debt (government, household, financial and non-financial) Britain was also the country with the highest total debt.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View the graph here

Total Debt (Private & Public) 2000-2011

Mckinsey published its follow up on one of my favorite papers. The series is called Debt and Deleveraging. Debt as in countries taking on more debt and deleveraging as in bringing down the debt levels. This graph shows the total debt for some selected countries, which consists of public (government) and private (household, non-financial firms and financial firms) debt. 

As you can see Total Debt is extremely high in Japan and in the U.K. Spain and France have high debt levels as well. South Korea seems to have about average total debt. It would be interesting and a better comparison to see more countries. Also debt is not the only thing that matters. If you look at balance sheets for the public and private actors, as individual companies, it is ofcourse also important to look at the assets.

Mckinsey Photostream on Flickr

Household Debt In The United States

This graph shows the total household debt in the United States. Orange is motgage loans. HE Revolving is home equity loans. Green is auto loan. Blue is credit card loans and from this quarter student loans are added as well (red). As you can see the american citizen is deleveraging (bringing down its debt), but it takes time. The household debt is about 77% of U.S. GDP.

11 Million Homes 'Under Water'

This nice graph from Credit Sesame shows the percent of homes per state for which the value of the home is lower than the mortgage being taken on it. Since house prices started to fall many households came into problems because selling their house would mean going broke. This is called a negative equity.

Click on the graph for an interactive version.

Credit Sesame

House Prices Around The World (1970-2008)

This chart shows the development of the house prices around the world. In Europe, Belgium, UK, Netherlands, Ireland and Norway had the highest increases in the house prices. Germany, Switzerland, Swden, Italy and France had the lowest increases.

Outside Europe, Australia and Canada had relatively has relatively high house prices and relatively lower in Japans and the U.S.

Especially notice 1995 when in many countries house prices started to rise dramatically.

Business Insider

Mortgage Debt-To-GDP Ratio

The Netherlands and Denmark had the highest Mortgage Debt-to-GDP ratio in the developed world in 2009 as you can see. Italy and Greece had the lowest ratio. In the Netherlands there is a big tax incentive to get debt by a mortgage. Besides that, it is also possible as one of the only countries in the world to get a mortgage loan of over 100% of the property value. These policies drove up the mortgage debt dramatically.

The Great Prosterity (1947-79) VS. Great Deregulation (80-now) In The U.S.

This infographic compares the two economic periods after the Second World War in the United States. The Great Prosperity on the one hand, which lasted from 1947-79 and The Great Regression, which I called the Great Deregulation, which lasted from 1980 till now. Especially notice the differences in the connection between productivity growth and income growth and the wealth held by the top 1 percent earners.

Click on the picture for a bigger version.

Total Debt (Government, Business, Households) US Declined

This post shows with a graph form Morgan Stanley that the Total debt to GDP ratio actually declined in the United States in the last few years in contrast to total Eurozone debt to GDP. The Total debt to GDP ratio contains government, non-financial institutions, financial institutions and households debt.

Source: Business Insider

 

IMF WEO Spring 2011: Household debt

Household Debt-to-Income exploded in the United Kingdom. It has also grown a lot in the United States with the Euro Area also growing at a lower rate. Yet unlike Europe, the Household debt in the United States and the United Kingdom like Japan has been declining in recent years.

Source: IMF