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Some Pictures of US Federal Debt
Senatorial candidate Hovde presents this picture: chart Source: Hovde. I’ll trust that the candidate’s staff did the adding correctly, although I think the calculation is pretty meaningless. For instance, how does individual colony debt in 1776 get counted? More substantively, does it make sense to report nominal debt over such a long period?* I think maybe nominal debt divided by nominal GDP makes more sense. chart Figure 1: Gross Federal debt, as a percentage of GDP (blue). Note end-FY gross debt as a percentage of calendar year GDP. Orange shading denotes mostly Trump administration (FY2016-FY2020 debt). ... (full story)