Showing posts with label federal debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label federal debt. Show all posts

Was the federal debt worse after WWII than it is now?




Frequently, members of the political class will say things like "Deficits don't matter" (Dick Cheney). The logic used to justify opinions like this usually involves invoking the federal debt-to-GDP ratio after World War II of 120% versus about 100% today. Obviously, the debt is larger now in nominal terms than it was then, but a lot of inflation and population growth have occurred since then. While