I have always believed that pictures are better than words. what you are looking at is the chart of Household Debt vs. GDP.

This is a big chart so click on it so you can see the Twin Peaks of 1929 and 2009...

I took this off the following website:
http://theforvm.org/diary/tomsyl/all-picture-no-words-us-consumer-debt-vs-gdp-1929-and-2007

This is related to a discussion I heard on NPR radio yesterday:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/02/household_debt_vs_gdp.html

This chart tracks the relationship between household debt and gross domestic product. You'll see two years when Americans' debt becomes 100 percent of GDP -- 1929 and 2007. It's the chart that made Columbia professor David Beim say:

"The problem is us. The problem is not the banks, greedy though they may be, overpaid though they may be. The problem is us... We've been living very high on the hog. Our living standard has been rising dramatically in the last 25 years. And we have been borrowing much of the money to make that prosperity happen."

We are looking at a long fall, Folks!

FD.