Overcoming America's Debt Overhang: The Case for Inflation | The New America Foundation

Overcoming America's Debt Overhang: The Case for Inflation | The New America Foundation: "It might be called the 'World's Scariest Chart.' It is a snapshot of the fragile foundations of the American economy and the epic boulder it now finds itself trapped beneath. The graph shows total debt outstanding in the United States, both secured and unsecured, as a percentage of GDP. In 1981 it was a manageable 168 percent, in 1996 253 percent, and by the first quarter of 2009 with the collapse of the housing and credit bubbles it had reached a staggering 373 percent of GDP."