Scary Charts of the Day -- A Two-fer Today

First up, the U.S. Debt-to-Income Ratio. That is, how much we owe -- or liabilities -- versus how much we take in -- personal disposable income. It took this ratio 39 years -- from 1962 to 2001 -- to go from 64% to 101%. At 101%, we pretty much owe as much as we're taking in. In only seven more years, from 2001 through 2008, this ratio tacked on an additional 37%, going from 101% to a whopping 138%. How much debt can Americans lard on to their balance sheets against their personal disposable income? This is yet another ratio that must eventually mean revert.That is scary.

Next up, Owners' Equity as a Percent of Household Real Estate. Owners' equity is now down to a historic low of about 50%, having moved down over the past several years from about 58%. The trend in this metric has been declining for decades as Americans levered-up to buy their homes. How much lower can it go? Another scary chart.

[Note: I'm probably going to continue uploading and linking to larger homemade charts instead of shrinking them down to Geeklog's 500 pixel limit, which tends to render them much harder to read and interpret. Charts from the St. Louis FRED, which now allow for resizing, will be posted at the 500 pixel limit.]