A Shopping List

At FRED, in the search box I type TOTAL CREDIT MARKET DEBT and press ENTER.

I get a list of 32 data series (as of 16 July 2011) including TCMDO, debt owed.

There is also debt owed by Domestic Nonfinancial sectors, and debt owed by Domestic Financial sectors.

I still think it emphasizes our flawed focus, that these two sectors are called financial and non-financial, rather than financial and productive, or maybe non-productive and productive. I think it says a lot about the way we look at things and what's wrong with our economy.

In addition to Domestic Financial and Domestic Nonfinancial, there is one non-domestic category: Foreign Sectors - Rest of the World Credit Market Instruments, Excluding Corporate Equities Liability.

The domestic categories are subdivided. Under Domestic Nonfinancial one finds

• Household sector
• Federal Government
• State and Local Governments
• Farm Business
• Nonfarm Noncorporate Business
• Nonfinancial Corporate Business

Under Domestic Financial one finds

• Agency- and GSE-backed Mortgage Pools
• Government-Sponsored Enterprises
• REITs
• ABS Issuers
• Commercial Banking
  
  
  • Commercial Banking, U.S.-Chartered Commercial Banks
  • Commercial Banking, Bank Holding Companies
  • Commercial Banking, Foreign Banking Offices in U.S.
• Funding Corporations
• Brokers and Dealers
• Saving Institutions
• Finance Companies
• Life Insurance Companies
• Credit Unions

In addition to these, there are BofAML categories. All of these categories end with the phrase "Plus Sub-Index Total Return Index Value", which I have removed (after having typed them all in) to make the list more readable:

• Public Sector Issuers Emerging Markets Corporate
• Private Sector Issuers Emerging Markets Corporate
• Non-Financial Emerging Markets Corporate
• Financial Emerging Markets Corporate
• Public Sector Issuers US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate
• Private Sector Issuers US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate
• Non-Financial US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate
• Financial US Emerging Markets Liquid Corporate

But these all turn out to be some "index" measure. Not some portion of total debt.


Just your typical Saturday morning exercise.