QUICK READ: Before you pop too many corks celebrating this supposedly fantastic economy, remember that someone is going to have to pick up the tab at the end of the night. A few days ago, the New York Fed released numbers showing that U.S. household debt just surpassed $14 trillion for the first time ever. The last time total household debt peaked at anywhere near this figure was in the third quarter of 2008, as the teeth of the Great Recession really sunk in.