That worldwide total debt—government, business, financial, and household debt—had reached $315 trillion as of the end of 2023, was already known from an Institute of International Finance “Global Debt Monitor” report issued in May. But more indicative of the threat this poses to the entire international financial system and national economies, is the rate of growth of this total debt: 21% in just the three years from end-2020 ($262 trillion) to end-2023 ($315 trillion). The United States constitutes both the huge “front end” of this exploding economic burden, with its economy representing more than a quarter of the increase, and the cause of the burden, especially on the developing countries, with the Federal Reserve’s interest rate spike of 2022-23.
These are the years the United States issued trillions in new sovereign debt for itself and printed trillions in new currency to “pay” it (late 2019-mid-2022) and then spiked its key interest rate from 0.5% to 5.25% in a little over a year.
