Citi: Recovery Fueled By Debt

Conventional wisdom is that the U.S. recovery is well under way, with Europe not far behind, and that the Fed’s decision to delay tapering until the end of the year or longer was overly cautious. But Citi credit specialist Matt King thinks that the recovery has been fueled almost entirely by debt and that it is leading us into a dangerous boom/bust cycle.

High rate of U.S. debt

U.S. debt is still at an incredibly high rate as a percentage of GDP. That’s not to say there hasn’t been any deleveraging, but it has taken place almost entirely in the private sphere and has been offset by public leveraging. The reality is that we’re still at...