55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Debt with More Debt

Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by graedus on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:31AM (#17566620)

I briefly searched for inflation-adjusted debt per capita but couldn't find it.

There is the federal debt to GDP ratio, which is 105%. This is at least a 50-year high[0]. FRED's household debt to GDP data doesn't go back very far, but we can see it's off the highs off 2008[1]. (edit: added household debt to GDP)

[0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/gfdegdq188S

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HDTGPDUSQ163N

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Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by JumpCrisscross on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:37AM (#17566671)

> I briefly searched for inflation-adjusted debt per capita but couldn't find it

You're looking for household debt to GDP [1]. It is a real (versus nominal) statistic because it's a ratio between two nominal terms. It also communicates financial health better than a per-capita term, since it measures against production.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HDTGPDUSQ163N

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Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by graedus on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:56AM (#17566862)

I managed to find that - thanks!

A few other interesting angles: Household Debt Service Payments as a Percent of Disposable Personal Income[0] (10.3%, near 40-year lows), Consumer Debt Service Payments as a Percent of Disposable Personal Income[1] (5.9%, near 40-year average), Personal Saving Rate[2] (3.2%, near 50-year lows).

[0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TDSP

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CDSP

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT

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Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by readhn on Friday July 20, 2018 @07:56AM (#17574246)

Part of the problem might be that it became harder for folks to obtain debt (mortgages specifically).

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