Skip to content




US Public Debt

The Economist put together a nice chart showing the blast-off of US public debt.  Republican or Democratic president, the debt grows either way:

 

Up up and away

We should take a look back to the other peak in public debt to GDP – WWII.   The great push back then was to sell “War Bonds”.  If you were a patriot and wanted to fight the evil Nazi’s overseas but could not serve your country directly, then you should buy War Bonds.  After a lot of marketing from celebrities and Uncle Sam, 85 million Americans purchased bonds totaling $185.7 billion.  To put that in perspective, that amounted to about $26,000 in today’s dollars for each of those 85 million Americans.  What interest rate did they get for that privilege?  About 1.5 – 3%, or the same as today.  I guess I would rather be paid that pitiful sum to pay for a world war than to pay for government fat.

 

Posted in Economics, Markets, Politics.

Tagged with , , , , .



Copyright © 2009-2013 SurlyTrader DISCLAIMER The commentary on this blog is not meant to be taken as an investment advice. The author is not a registered investment adviser. There is no substitute for your own due diligence. Please be aware that investing is inherently a risky business and if you chose to follow any of the advice on this site, then you are accepting the risks associated with that investment. The Author may have also taken positions in the stocks or investments that are being discussed and the author may change his position at any time without warning.

Yellow Pages for USA and Canada SurlyTrader - Blogged

ypblogs.com