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The Economist has created a Global Debt Clock, with data on public debt of different countries for different years (including projections up to 2011). Out of curiosity I decided to look at the numbers for Brazil, the US and the UK.

The ratio of public debt to total GDP in Brazil is expected to grow from 37.1% in 2008 to 44.5% in 2011, which doesn't look that bad.

The US is expected to go from 39% to 66%, which doesn't look that good, specially against its long term average.

The really scary number is for the UK, whose debt is expected to grow from 49% to 93% of GDP.

These clearly show the different efforts made by governments to rescue their economies. I expect that people in the UK are very likely to face either tax rises or big decreases in public services expenditures in the near future.