Alternatively, stronger correlation may reflect a change in the willingness of investors in different countries to accept price volatility: if investors are more risk averse, they will insist on a higher return for the risks they bear by holding shares, so share prices would have to fall.
The ratio is closely watched because as Ferrarone notes it shows a high degree of correlation to the year-over-year change in the OECD leading indicators, which in turn closely corresponds to market returns.
There was still a negative correlation between the size of the national debt and GDP growth, but there was no implied causal relationship or sudden change at 90 percent.