Advanced Economies' Gross Financing Needs in 2010

This chart by Mercatus Center senior research fellow Veronique de Rugy illustrates the gross amount of public debt that advanced economies must finance this year, represented as a portion of each nation's GDP.  This amount of debt, approximately $5 trillion for the United States, is an important metric – our public financing needs represent a massive amount of credit that will not be available for use by private investors; it also quantifies our susceptibility to credit market volatility. 

On average, each advanced economy shown here will require financing for debt equivalent to 23.7% of its GDP this year.