Interesting BBC News article countering the common press belief that such a massive debt is a really bad thing. Essentially debt is fine as long as it’s managed; debt growth is the sign of a healthy economy (debt will naturally grow anyway with inflation), and bad debt accounts for such an infinitesimally small proportion that it’s hardly worthly of the stark headlines currently plastered on the front pages.
One small thing though, I wish they would at least acknowledge that 1,000,000,000,000 is a US trillion (it’s a UK billion – a UK trillion has twice as many 0s again).