The amount of global debt has reached 243 trillion USD. This is a record that exceeds three times the gross domestic product of the world. It’s a bomb with a clock mechanism that can destroy civilization. According to the Institute of International Finance, global debt grew by 3.3 trillion USD last year.

Of the total, 65 trillion is the state debt, which is almost one and a half times more than the amount during the crisis in 2009.

Extremely high is the debt-to-GDP ratio in developed countries – 390%. At the same time, the indebtedness of emerging economies is declining, which is in fact not a good indicator as it reflects a slowdown in economic growth rates.

The history of this indebtedness has been repeated for centuries. Governments, companies, and individuals take debt to finance economic development. Growth does not happen, and debtors are increasingly indebted.

Late last year, International Monetary Fund economists pointed out the huge global debt as a major threat to the global economy. The Managing Director and Chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, recalled in this regard the wrong policy decisions that followed the bankruptcy of the world’s fourth-largest investment bank, Lehman Brothers.

Most governments have embarrassed almost all the reforms needed to protect the banking system from risky actions. While regulators have been able to learn some lessons over the last decade, such as an increase in bank reserves and a tighter financial sector oversight, the measures taken are clearly not enough.

The United States is among the leader in debt issue. The total value of US debts, private and state, is enormous. The amount has almost tripled since 2000 and is already 73.6 trillion USD. The value of US corporate debt is already at levels close to the pre-crisis levels of 2008. The US state debt has broken record after record and is now about 22 trillion USD. Under President Donald Trump, the speed of debt growth has only accelerated. And although in 2016, during the election campaign he promised to cope with the debt increase, actually happened the opposite. For two years, the US federal government has been indebted by nearly 2 trillion USD, and in the next two, according to the estimates, will add another 4.4 trillion USD to that amount.

For the fiscal year 2018, the US federal budget deficit increased by 17% to 779 billion USD, which is a maximum since 2012. This is the result of Trump’s tax reform, which has dramatically reduced the taxes for wealthy Americans. According to the forecast of the Budget Committee in Congress this year, the deficit will increase by 15.1% to 897 billion USD. And in 2022 it will exceed 1 trillion USD.

At this rate, by 2024, the US government debt will reach 140% of GDP. It will reach a point where the refinancing of old liabilities will require new ones. So the US will slip into a debt spiral, which can lead to an unprecedented economic crisis comparable only to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The federal government may have a decade to solve the problem of indebtedness. But the crash can happen earlier. Analysts say the subsequent crisis will create enormous poverty, geopolitical instability, riots, and wars.

The next financial crisis will be even more terrible than the one of 2008 because since then, more than 70 trillion USD debts have been burdened by the global economy. This means that both governments and central banks now have far less power and opportunities to stabilize the economy.