How Much Debt Can the US Absorb?

Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database, October 2008

This really is the trillion dollar question. All of the debt generated by the stimulus is being financed at very low rates, but eventually rates will start to creep up on their own. Part of the challenge in determining the number is because the US began the financial crisis with a level of debt equivalent to what we had at the end of World War II and part because Japan has already shattered any prior records for a stable country in peacetime. The US is a member of a club of delinquents; virtually every major economy's government has increased levels of debt in recent decades.
Source:Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2008