U.S. National Debt throughout history

[Rictor]

http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm

What's shocking to me is that it held steady through WWII, Korea and Vietnam, and only started to skyrocket under Carter and Reagan, which was a relatively peaceful period. The other surprising thing is that once it takes off, the only time it levels off is briefly under Clinton. So much for a balanced budget and fiscal responsibility.

Maybe people will starting listening to Ron Paul when he says that the nation is effectively bankrupt.

[MkH]

That does paint a picture. I was rather surprised how low it was during the Vietnam war too.

[demotivater]

It paints a picture, but it's not an accurate picture. Labelling the Gulf Wars as the first and second "oil wars" should be a dead giveaway.

http://zfacts.com/p/p/55.html

[TheBelgian]

Damn, thats a lot of zeros

[nognig]

Total debt is irrelvant. What about inflation? What about the size of the economy?

The only graph that matters is debt as a % of GDP.

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/465/nationaldebtgdpaj0.gif


Looks a little different now huh?

Clinton did reduce the US debt, but he also held office during a huge boom in the American economy. It's easy to reduce the debt when the total taxes collects skyrockets. Bush had to deal with 9/11 and a slowing economy. Not to say he didn't increase gov't spending. He did that too.

NN

[Abolith]

It paints a picture, but it's not an accurate picture. Labelling the Gulf Wars as the first and second "oil wars" should be a dead giveaway.

http://zfacts.com/p/p/55.html

I was thinking the same thing...just a wee bit biased

[2Sheds_Jackson]

It's a complex issue that requires a bit more thought than just referencing a site that cherry-picks data to propagate a particular worldview (note how many times the term "neo-conservative" is dropped on that site).

These charts provide some meaningful counterbalance-

http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/albums/2shedsjackson/agu.gif


http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/albums/2shedsjackson/agt.gif


Generally speaking, after WWII, economists began to view the the national debt less in absolutes, and more in terms of how it compared with the GDP.

More good info here-
http://www.marktaw.com/culture_and_media/TheNationalDebt.html


Of course it bears watching - but it's pretty clear that politicians on both sides are just giddy when it comes to spending other people's money.

[Lefty]

Still a bad trend to develop, no matter what you you look at it, republican or democrat, the net interest on this national debt (reagrdless of GDP/C) when added with the Social Secuirty expenditures per fiscal year keep growing, and that leaves less space for new government programs, combine that with tax cuts and you have a recipe for minor crisis.

I'm in favor of killing off the national debt within 100 years, but that would mean severe sacrifice on behalf of the American people, something no politician wants to see done. So we keep passing the buck down the generational gap :) .

The good news is, we must remember that other countries have thier debt with the USA, when all is said and done, international debt is tied together, and to my understanding, forms a kind of economic MAD with other nations.

[annihilation]

Of course it bears watching - but it's pretty clear that politicians on both sides are just giddy when it comes to spending other people's money.

I couldn't agree more. Regardless of how you see it. % of GDP or overall debt numbers. Those politicians that we have placed in high office have been burning our money with little or no disregard.