Everyone is talking about debt these days. Perhaps more than ever before — with good cause. Huge debt levels with soaring trends can cause one to think America is becoming more addicted to debt than ever before. Like a drug junkie needing more each day, there are more and more debt junkies — in all sectors.

America used to be an economy based on production and savings, with a strong manufacturing base. Later it was said America had become what they called a 'service economy', as manufacturing and saving ratios declined and trade deficits soared. Perhaps some will say America now has become a 'debt society'. Who knows where that leads.

TWO GREAT QUESTIONS:
1. Can the production of debt forever replace the production of goods and savings?
2. Can Americans forever borrow their way to prosperity?— forever and ever?

QUESTION > what does a summary of all debt in America look like? Answer > see below.

Knowledge is Power... provided it's based on hard data.

Two chapters of the Grandfather Economic Report series cover Government Debt and Private Sector Debt in America - - telling the debt story by use of color data graphics:
1. Federal Government Debt Report
2. America's Total Debt Report - includes private sector debt

Readers requested an additional web page summarizing debt in America in table form. Here it is.

BOTTOM-LINE - - DEBT SUMMARY TABLE
AMERICA'S TOTAL DEBT
- $40 Trillion -
— add another $44 trillion for contingent Social Security/Medicare —
(updated March 2005)

Our Federal Government Debt Report shows $7.6 Trillion of debt. The State & Local Government Report shows debt of $1.7 Trillion and $30.8 Trillion of private (household, business and financial sector) debt is revealed in America's Total Debt Report.

These sum to $40.1 Trillion - - equivalent to $136,347 per capita. (This sum does not include the federal government's un-funded contingent liabilities for social security/Medicare estimated at $44 trillion, plus additional amounts for unknown (?) contingencies listed below.)

The following table summarizes Total Debt in America - - as of January 1, 2005

Note: Although above data is exactly as published from the sources, the author believes true debt is even higher. A few examples > corporate debt is under-stated as evidenced by many companies with off-balance sheet debt (Enron, etc.) and household debt above certainly does not include many areas of  non-recorded debt. I think many will agree that individuals and corporations never over-state debt— instead, many purposely under-state same.

Note: If you believe in the reliability of data reported by the federal government and the Federal Reserve Board, then you must accept the above data, because those are the data sources. If you have data and sources for the unknown (?) areas in the above table, please email M. Hodges.

Summary:

The above debt summary table shows — excluding contingent un-funded liabilities — total debt (private and government) is $40.1 Trillion ($9.3 trillion governments, $30.8 private sectors) — equivalent to $136,258 per person (including those in diapers), which is equivalent to $545,032 per family of 4 and $30,000 more than last year.

This chart from the chapter 'America's Total Debt Report' shows the trend of that $40.1 trillion debt (red line) soaring up and up much faster than the economy (blue line).