Only a Few Short Years

As usual, Zero Hedge (one of my absolute favorite blogs) is at the forefront when it comes to funny money-era milestones:

“US Debt/GDP Hits Post WW2 High 99.5% Following $55 Billion Overnight Debt Increase: Total Debt Now Over $15.1 Trillion”

It seems like it was only yesterday that we celebrated 15,OOO,OOO,OOO,OOOBAMA day. Two weeks later, we are now well over 100 billion in debt over this historic landmark, or $15.11 trillion to be precise, following the predicted $55 billion increase in debt with the settlement of all auctions from last week. And aside from the mind-staggering rate of new debt increase why else is this number notable? Because as we learned 10 days ago, total Q3 GDP in current dollars is $15.18 trillion. In other words, US debt/GDP is now 99.5%, the highest it has been in the post WW2 period, and rapidly rising. What is worse is that the delta to 100% debt/GDP is only $70 billion: this is about half of the next two weekly gross issuances of 3,10,30s and 2,5,7s of about $160 billion over the next two weeks. In other words by the end of 2011, debt/GDP will finally be a triple digit number percentage. And the other notable thing is that the debt limit still is $15.194 trillion. It is ironic that the economic growth ceiling and the debt issuance ceiling are now one and the same: if the the debt target number does not rise neither will the US economy. Q.E.D.

One thing ZH doesn’t make too much note of — this time, at least – is the fact that it’s only taken a few short years of reckless profligacy to get us to the point.

Can’t wait to see what this chart will look like when Financial Armageddon 2.0 is fully underway.