Chart of the Day: the Moment the Debt Rocket Took Flight Governments around the world have added $24.6 trillion (£15 trillion) to their debt bills in a decade, with nearly $10 trillion of that being racked up in the years since the credit crunch. Chris Marshall Aug 04, 2011, Citywire Money.

Interesting Insight The chart, and the concise article which accompanied it, gives a good insight into one of the underlying problems or dangers facing international financial markets.

Chart of the Day: the moment the debt rocket took flight
By Chris Marshall on Aug 04, 2011 at 11:25;
Governments around the world have added $24.6 trillion (£15 trillion) to their debt bills in a decade, with nearly $10 trillion of that being racked up in the years since the credit crunch.
The high cost of economic stimulus packages following the financial crisis and lost revenue during the downturn are behind the recent acceleration in debt to $41.1 trillion (£25.2 billion). But Mckinsey, which produced the graph above, also points to the longer-term costs of old age in developed nations, which is slowly boosting pension and healthcare costs (see the IMF's recent video for a short but intense explainer on this).
While debt-to-GDP ratios are small in most emerging markets, Japan, the US and western European nations are swimming in debt, hence the debt crises of recent months – and years in the case of Japan where government debt has reached 220% of GDP.
The result? Spending cutbacks and higher taxes will be needed for many more years to come.