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

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

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.

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

Total Debt (Government, Business, Households & Banks) For Selected Countries

This post shows the total debt in selected countries. Total debt consists of Government, Non financial business, Households and Financial Institutions debt.

Source: GFMag

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