Why do people keep comparing assets ($) to GDP ($/year)?
If you want to compare the two, 1 year isn't a reasonable term. You can convert a rate into a current asset value by multiplying by a P/E ratio, anywhere from 10 to 20 these days.
If you want to compare the two, 1 year isn't a reasonable term. You can convert a rate into a current asset value by multiplying by a P/E ratio, anywhere from 10 to 20 these days.
Alternately, compare to a country with lower GDP.
"Norway (5.3M people) makes as much sitting on its investments as Latvia (2M people) earns working 36.5 hours per week."
This has the advantage of comparing a Scandinavian country with a Baltic nation, with cultural and geographic proximity.
It isn't completely meaningless to compare these, but the units need to be right: Rather than "170%" (which scares people because it's more than 100%!) we should say that household debt is equal to 20 months of disposable income.