Federal Deficit Chart (1901 to 2010)

Federal Deficit chart from 1901 to present. It aint pretty! See comparisons of current deficit with that of World War 2 below.

It’s hard to compare the current deficit to that of World War 2 without a log scale chart, which isn’t available from the St. Louis Fed’s site. So I’ve included a current trailing 10 year chart (below) and one from the period of 1934 to 1944 (2nd chart). They appear somewhat similar in tragectory and magnitude. The deficits of World War 2, however, quickly reversed themselves. After all, we economically colonized half of the world. I doubt that the current deficits will end the same way.