Household Net Worth and the Fed’l Govt
April 6, 2026
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I am always amazed by this chart (in past few years anyway). The solid blue line is US Household Net Worth. The dotted blue line is Household Liabilities.
I don’t know that this is American exceptionalism, but it certainly does seem extraordinary. Assets simply levitate while liabilities barely move. I’m not drawing conclusions; just observing.
Consider this data from the thin grey recession line in 2020.
At the dip in Q1 2020, HH Net Worth was $109.8T. HH Total Liabilities were $16.6T. As of Q4 2025, HH Net Worth is $184.1T while Liabilities rose to $21.5T or $4.9T increase. Astonishing numbers in a way, average increase in Net Worth of about $12T per year over six years. Obviously supportive of consumer spending.
*data not from chart, but from this table:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/z1/balance_sheet/table/
Breaks down in this way:
NON-Financial Assets, Q1 2020, $39.6T, Q4 2025, $61.7T, an increase of $22.1T. By the way, home mortgages are the largest liability against non-fin assets, but that number has only gone from $10.4T in Q1 2020 to $13.8T in Q4 2025. That accounts for 70% of the total increase in liabilities!
FINANCIAL Assets, Q1 2020, $86.8T, Q4 2025, $143.9T, an increase of $57.1T.
| Q1 2020 | Q4 2025 | chng | ||
| Household Net Worth | 109.8 | 184.1 | 74.3 | |
| Financial Assets | 86.8 | 143.9 | 57.1 | |
| Non-Financial Assets | 39.6 | 61.7 | 22.1 | |
| Household Total Liabilities | 16.6 | 21.5 | 4.9 | |
| Federal Gov’t Debt Level | 23.0 | 33.9 | 10.9 |
In some ways it seems like growth in the US Fed’l Gov’t deficit is partially respnsible for pumping up private (top of K) assets while the debt goes onto the Federal ledger.
The first QE wasn’t inflationary because it pumped stocks and financial assets. In COVID it WAS inflationary because of direct transfers to consumers and the enormous size of gov’t stimulus. Could it possibly be the case going forward that money gets driven into productive domestic factories and physical investment? Might suggest a more durable economic base going forward, perhaps partially at the expense of financial markets.
Table: USD amount outstanding levels of debt, US Gov’t highlighted
