US debt Versus GDP is as bad as WWII
 

Wow this is unreal after this last round of bailouts were are going to be at 100% or so.

Half way down the page is the graph.

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

Pretty biased but the numbers are interesting -

"The ratio of debt to GDP had been generally dropping since the end of World War II. When Mr. Reagan entered office the percent of US debt relative to GDP was down to 33.3%. He argued vociferously to reduce the level of all that liberal spending. However the only real effort he pursued was to get taxes cut while increasing spending. You can see in Figure 2 above that cutting taxes and increasing spending predictably made the debt increase - in real dollars and as a percent of GDP. During his eight years in office the percentage of debt to GDP grew to 51.9%. This amounts to a 64% increase in debt relative to GDP while Reagan was in the White House -- a rather significant increase by anyone’s measure.



The percentage of debt to GDP continued to grow until 1996, when Mr. Clinton began to get government spending under control. The US debt peaked at 67.3% of GDP under his administration. By the end of the Clinton administration this percentage had dropped to 57.6%. Debt as a percent of GDP dropped almost 10% in four years under a Democratic President with a hostile Republican Congress. Mr. Clinton showed steadfast fiscal leadership against all odds and in spite of right-wing attacks and misinformation.



Mr. Bush II inherited a shrinking government and debt in 2001. With his first budget he managed to increase the debt to GDP ratio to 60.0%, by cutting taxes but not spending. By 2004 this ratio had risen to 63.7%, as a result of additional tax cuts but no significant corresponding cuts in spending. Government estimations (which are notoriously low) predict that the debt to GDP ratio will grow to 69.3% by 2008, two percent higher than the previous peak in 1996. Mr. Bush will completely wipe out the gains we made under a fiscally responsible Democratic President. "

Reagan, ex Democrat, UFO enthusiast + The Bushes, the spy who was not a spy, and his comedian son = Debt, debt, debt.

Last trade surplus in 1975, a year after Nixon resigned, so 33 years ago.

This not about trade. it is govt debt versus gdp. Brazil is 47% or so according to the CIA factbook.

I know it's not trade, but it's where the debt problem lies. Western Europeans and Japan also have their national debt, especially Japan but it's by far the world's largest creditor while the US is by far the world's largest debtor.

http://www.reuters.com/article/econo...T2258720070524
"Japan's net external assets rose to a record high in 2006, government data showed on Friday, keeping it the world's largest creditor nation for the 16th straight year.
Japanese liabilities abroad stood at 343.024 trillion yen, up 5.4 percent from the year before, as foreigners increased their holdings of Japanese assets.
As a result, Japan's net external assets rose 19.0 percent to 215.081 trillion yen, growing for the first time in two years and exceeding a record high marked in 2004.
While some countries like China and several Middle East nations do not release comparable data, Japan's net external assets far exceed those of Germany, which were the world's second largest at 87.873 trillion yen at the end of 2006."

Ok you don't get it. Japan has a national debt also. Right so why are you talking trade when we are talking govt debt? Foreigners buy are debt for safety and all kinds of reasons but not because they trade with the federal govt.

Looking at chart ...
US debt vs GDP is roughly 65%.
At the end of WW II it was near 120%

The forecast according to the chart is for debt to go to $12 trillion by 2013. the red bars are forecasting debt not the ratio.

However the forecast is also for GDP to grow to a point where the ratio will be about 71% in 2013 (unless u think we are heading to Great depression II)