The Global Economy In Two Lines

Here's a great table tweeted by @pawelmorski:

What you see is the significance of credit to economic growth in each of these regions. In the US for example, credit expansion accounted for 9.1% of GDP. These days that's down to 3.5%. But that's much bigger than the UK, which is at 1.2%, and it's WAY bigger than the Euro area, where credit is still shrinking, and where the whole banking system is broken.

Japan on the other hand is the only place where credit is now a larger share of GDP than it was pre-crisis, which is consistent with the country's new approach of stimulating via much easier money.

These two lines explain a lot.