Japan possesses the highest national public debt in the developed world, routinely hovering around two hundred and sixty percent of their entire gross domestic product.

A closer look

Japan possesses the highest national public debt in the developed world, routinely hovering around two hundred and sixty percent of their entire gross domestic product. Unlike other heavily indebted nations, the vast majority of this massive debt is actually held by Japanese citizens and domestic institutions rather than foreign creditors. The Bank of Japan essentially keeps interest rates suppressed to zero or below, allowing the government to perpetually borrow money without immediately imploding. Economists have been aggressively predicting the absolute collapse of the Japanese economy for nearly three decades, yet it just stubbornly continues to function out of sheer institutional willpower. It is almost inspiring how an entire country's macroeconomic strategy essentially boils down to running up the largest credit card bill in human history and casually ignoring the collection calls until the end of time!