Our Deficit/Debt Problem in one Simple Chart

Hat tip to Barry Ritholz for the chart!

Unfortunately TeamObama and the Democrats generally wants to increase the blue dotted line rather than address the real problem of the red line which is excessive spending. 

In reality some of both will be needed. Will the real leaders in Congress willing to address this please stand up? Do not be overshadowed by TeamObama's political considerations ahead of the nations financial difficulties that must be addressed.

World Debt and GDP - Unsustainable

This is the chart I have been looking for.  Sorry, but the axis labels are not part of the graphic file. I have described them below. Thanks to Hayman Capital Management, LLC and Kyle Bass, via my dentist, for the lead to finally find it. Here is a comparison of the world's total  debt to GDP .

The dire conclusion is that the world's debt has grown at an 11% annual rate in these 9 years from $80 trillion to $220 trillion while the total world's GDP has grown only at a rate of ~4%. This is unsustainable and Bass' conclusion (in late 2011) is that hard defaults are imminent. See the full report and analysis here.

Blue = Public Debt Securities
Red = Private Debt Securities
Green = Bank Assets
Purple Line = Debt/GDP

The left axis is Total Global Debt in $Trillions from 0 at the bottom to $220 Trillion at the top ordinate. The columns are the years 2002 to 2010. The right axis is the Global Debt/GDP Ratio with the bottom axis at 240% to the top at 350%