Public debts in the advanced economies have surged in recent years to levels that have not been recorded since the end of World War II. Through 2010 the average public debt/GDP ratio for all the advanced economies has surpassed the pre-World War II peaks reached during the World War I and subsequently during the Great Depression. Private debt levels particularly those of financial institutions and households are similarly in uncharted territory and represent (in varying degrees) potential contingent liability of the public sector in many countries including the US.