Mind The Debtberg: Why Interest Rates Don’t Need To Rise Much To Trigger Recession

While it is true that U.S. interest rates are still very low by historic standards, the reality is that rates do not have to rise anywhere near as high as they did in the past to cause recessions due to America’s debt load that has grown dramatically over the past several decades.

Since the early-1980s, total U.S. debt – both public and private – has been growing at a faster rate than the underlying economy, as measured by the nominal GDP:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Interest Rates Don’t Need To Rise Much To Cause Recessions Now