and always bear in mind that the future payment obligations will grow immeasurably and in some cases double these debts. in addition, large parts of the national debt are parked in shadow budgets. in Germany, this is certainly 10 to 15% of gross domestic product

It sounds like Germany's been doing some very creative bookkeeping to avoid being higher on that chart.

It's the law of the land: 60% is the ceiling! Can you even fathom a world without it?