Let's have a close look at the debt markets. Now, when you hear the word debt, you might think of things like loans, credit cards, maybe even your mortgage. But what about the debt market? That's a whole different ballgame, and it's gigantic.

You are currently looking at a visual that might initially seem simple, but it tells a story of scale.

On the left, we have the global debt market volume in 2022, and on the right, the global equity market from the same year. With just over $100 trillion the global equity market is huge, but the global debt market is even larger, more than twice the size of the equity markets. So why is the debt market so large? It's because debt is a universal tool. Governments, businesses, and private households across the world all use debts, for example, to build infrastructure, to fund their operations, or just to buy houses. And while the principle is always the same, debt is basically the promise to pay back the borrowed money with a little extra called interest. There are many different types of debt instruments and many different ways to categorize them.