The thresholds presented by the BIS researchers should probably not be taken as precise estimates of when growth falls of a cliff, but rather as one more piece of a growing body of evidence that too much debt can be as harmful to growth as too little.
The recovery in the United States continues to be held back by a number of other headwinds, including still tight borrowing conditions for some businesses and households, and – as I will discuss in more detail shortly – the restraining effects of fiscal policy and fiscal uncertainty.