How does Europe have it worse when the debt to GDP ratio of the combined Eurozone federal governments for example is lower than the US fed? Further, most eurozone countries, like Italy don’t have sub national debt(its regions and cities can’t legally have debt), where as states like California are massively in debt, but that sub national debt in the US is never calculated in debt ratios. Further, the last time I checked, debt held by private households in the US is also much higher on average.