The national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product

 

The national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product

 

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/history/history.htm

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

 

US Total Government Debt Since 1900

 

 

 

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_national_debt_chart.html


At the beginning of the 20th century debt was equally divided between federal and state and local debt, totaling less than 20 percent of GDP. After World War I, the total debt surged to 45% of GDP. But by the mid 1920s debt had declined to below 35 percent of GDP. Then came the Great Depression, boosting total public debt to 70 percent of GDP. World War II boosted federal debt to almost 122 percent of GDP in 1946, with state and local debt adding another 7 percent. For the next 35 years successive governments brought the debt below 50 percent of GDP, but President Reagan increased the federal debt up over 50 perent of GDP, and total debt towards 70 perent to win the Cold War. President Bush increased the debt to fight a war on terror and bail out the banks in the crisis of 2008.