precipices, monetary

the economist has a couple of graphs about the us federal government budget, which i thought were interesting:





i'm pleased that they're both in the same units -- fraction of the US GDP -- which makes talking about how the federal budget has changed over time easier than, for example, if they're in current dollars. (or worse, the typical presentation with the current budget as one or more pie charts and a history of taxes and spending in some other measurement.) it would have been nice if they'd covered the same period of time, or if the first one had been scaled to the same width as the second to make comparisons easier.

i hadn't realized quite how much we've been able to refinance the federal deficit over the last decade.