How Countries Go Broke: Principles for Navigating the Big Debt Cycle, Where We Are Headed, and What We Should Do

Do big government debts and fast rates of adding to them threaten our collective well-being? In this groundbreaking analysis, Ray Dalio, one of the greatest investors of our time and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Principles, shares the reasons behind his fears for the US debt markets, answering some of the most important market and economic questions we now face: Are there limits to debt growth? Can a big, important reserve currency country like the US really go broke? Is there such a thing as a "Big Debt Cycle" that can tell us when to worry about debt and what to do about it?

For decades, politicians, policymakers, and investors have debated these questions, but the Big Debt Cycle that helps answer them is not talked about or well understood. With the US debt issue coming to a head, Dalio's How Countries Go Broke provides the first-ever detailed analysis of the Big Debt Cycle, explaining its implications and offering a surprisingly straightforward solution to getting debt problems like the ones the US faces under control.

Dalio has built his career as a leading global macro investor by studying the patterns of history to develop unconventional perspectives on what's happening in markets and economies today. It was this approach that led him, in the years leading up to the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, to study the Great Depression and other past big debt crises and use what he learned to navigate the turbulent markets successfully. By looking closely at thirty-five cases over the past 100 years when governments have gone broke and studying the mechanics behind them, Dalio has developed a first-of-its-kind template for what to watch for and what to do when the threat is as significant as his measures show that it now is. He has discussed this template with treasury secretaries and central bankers from around the world and is now sharing it with the public to help bring urgent attention to the big risks the US and a number of other countries face--and to explain how to avoid the worst-case scenario.

Author: Ray Dalio
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: 09/02/2025
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781501124068

About the Author
Ray Dalio is Founder, Co-CIO and Member of the Bridgewater Board, which, over the last forty years, has become the largest and best-performing hedge fund in the world. Dalio has appeared on the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world as well as the Bloomberg Markets list of the 50 most influential people. He is also #1 New York Times bestselling author of Principles, Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises, and Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order. He lives with his family in Connecticut.