US debt hits 100% of GDP! Way to go America!

[GliderGuider]

US Consumers Hit By Credit Crisis, And Everybody Pays

Over the past decade, American households have piled on $8 trillion in debt, an increase of 137 percent, twice the gain seen in the size of the economy.

At $14 trillion, the debt load is now roughly equal to the entire economy's annual output. Much of the increase comes from home mortgages, which have expanded by $6 trillion since 1998, but it also reflects higher balances on credit cards and auto loans.

America -- leading the way into the future and beyond.

[ixion]

1. and 5 trillion of that in just the past year or so

we're moving quickly to bring about the total collapse... bailouts all around! :sarcasm:

[Joanne98]

2. Snippet

Meredith Whitney, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst who was among the first to warn that banks needed to raise huge amounts of money to offset mortgage losses, worries that cuts to credit limits will constrain already cautious consumers, reinforcing a vicious cycle of bank losses and economic decline.

"If you lose your job, if you get sick, if any unforeseen event happens, that's your slush fund," Whitney said at the Reuters Global Finance Summit in New York.

"If all of a sudden you lose your slush fund (or it) gets cut dramatically—and it will—everything about you changes, and you become more guarded as a consumer. You could be absolutely fine in every other area of your life, but getting your credit line cut changes your whole outlook."

[no_hypocrisy]

3. That amount is waaaay too large to be paid off. The interest alone is daunting.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. There are many such sites on the web that if given a chance

could help the U.S. (and a few other nations) figure out how to do things in a sustainable manner.



http://www.incharge.org/
We provide credit counseling, debt management programs and alternatives to debt consolidation — without a loan or bankruptcy. Get debt relief and eliminate the stress caused by credit card and medical debts with a solution from InCharge.

[tama]

5. plus public debt

currently 10,5 trillion, adding a full trillion in fiscal year 2008. And more than doubling in the last 8 years. And adding half a trillion allready for this going fiscal year...

So private and public federal combined, about 25 trillion debt so far for which the taxpayer is directly responsible. How much state, communal, corporate and other debt on top of that?