They face less testing capital requirements than their private-sector rivals, allowing them to load on much higher levels of borrowing.
A number of other major economies had higher levels of borrowing: Japan's debt was worth 85.9% of its GDP, for example, and Italy's well over 100%.
"The higher levels of borrowing have been driven by weak growth in tax receipts – in particular, receipts of income tax, capital gains tax and National Insurance contributions.
All major economies are now recording higher levels of borrowing relative to gross domestic product (GDP) than they did in 2007.
However, in the recently-launched localism bill Whitehall aims to end the era of grant-funded social housing development, putting the emphasis instead on housing associations paying for new homes through efficiency savings, higher levels of borrowing and higher rents.
"The continuing downward trend in undergraduate student borrowing and the significantly higher levels of borrowing among graduate students are critical to understanding student debt problems," said Sandy Baum, a scholar at George Washington University who co-authored the College Board reports.
The high level of borrowing, a direct consequence of an inadequate tax take to finance the state even in its reduced current condition, will change barely at all either this year or next.
The idea — already being applied by some European countries and further developed by some of my former colleagues at the International Monetary Fund — is based on the premise that a high level of borrowing relative to equity is a form of pollution, creating negative spillovers for the rest of the economy.
