It is not a surprise that a major threat to the US economy is the country’s rapidly growing debt. However, it’s not just the national debt that is a problem. Private debt owed by individual households is also spiraling. Household debt has become such a prominent problem, it deserves as much, if not more, media attention than government debt. The pressures of household debt have caused some economists to suggest that the US economy is emulating that of Japan of the 1990s. Japan suffered a similar “real estate bust,” affecting the economy for years, and the nineties became known as the “Lost Decade” in Japan. The US seems to be following a similar path.