Jamie Coleman of ForexLive is asking to put the US debt myth to rest.

“One of the most tired things I hear, repeatedly and wrongly, is that the US debt is over $15 trln and that our debt to GDP ratio is over 100%. That’s untrue. It is the function of accounting gimmicks regarding Social Security receipts.”

The US debt is no doubt largest in the world but it is so because it is the largest economy. As Coleman points out, in absolute terms the US’s public debt is $10.9 trln, which is 72% of its GDP and relatively much lower than that of Germany’s at 94%, Japan’s at 197% and Canada’s at 82%.