Particularly since the end of Bretton Woods, the quantity of government and other debt has risen inexorably. We are all aware of that, of soaring government debt to GDP ratios and unproductive private sector debt. After the Lehman Crisis, there was a general view that debt was the problem. Global debt at that time was estimated to be about $210 trillion, and it was commonly thought that it would have to stop growing and be paid down. Today it is estimated by the Institute of International Finance to be $318 trillion.[i]
But this is not the whole story.
