Today’s episode is based on a question from Adam in Riverside California. He asks about how much of a risk corporate debt represents to our economy. 

This is a great question, and it’s a complex one to answer. So it will take a couple of episodes to answer this question. Today we’re going to explain one of the widely accepted debt rating systems, and on tomorrow’s show we will go deeper into answering Adam’s question. 

The global debt of all forms grew from about 100T ten years ago, to about 170T today. The debt to GDP ratio has grown as well and has grown by 25% in that same 10 year period. Globally we are carrying a lot more debt. In that same time, corporate debt has grown from 37T to 66T, a growth of 29T in that same time period. We will dig deeper into what all this means on tomorrow’s show. 

In the meantime, how much has your personal and business debt grown in the past decade?