Federal Debt: The Time Series

Here is a graph of Federal debt held by the public, as a share of GDP, 1990-09.

Figure 1: Federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP. NBER defined recessions shaded gray; assumes last recession ended 09Q2. Sources: Series FYGFDPUN from St. Louis Fed FREDII, with 09Q4 data from CBO, and BEA, 2009Q4 advance release, NBER, and author’s calculations.

Figure 2: Federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP (blue) and as a share of potential GDP. NBER defined recessions shaded gray; assumes last recession ended 09Q2. Vertical dashed line at last Q4 of each Administration, solid vertical line at Q1 of beginning of each Adminisration. Sources: Series FYGFDPUN from St. Louis Fed FREDII, with 09Q4 data from CBO, and BEA, 2009Q4 advance release, CBO (January 2010), NBER, and author’s calculations.

Figure 3: Federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP (blue) and Total Federal debt as a share of GDP. NBER defined recessions shaded gray; assumes last recession ended 09Q2. Vertical dashed line at last Q4 of each Administration, solid vertical line at Q1 of beginning of each Adminisration. Sources: Series FYGFDPUN, series GFDEBTN from St. Louis Fed FREDII, and BEA, 2009Q4 advance release, NBER, and author’s calculations.

Federal Debt: The Time Series