National debt Jan 2010 - Sept 2011

Click to enlarge

This graph shows the U.S. national debt from Jan 2010 to Sept 14, 2011. Viewing it with the eye it looks exponential or worse. In fact an exponential regression would suggest that the growth is worse than exponential.

Some people will say that the nominal debt is not important. They will argue that it is the debt to GDP ratio that is important. If we were to compute debt to GDP ratio it would also be increasing. The U.S. economy hasn't grown that much this decade. It is better to consider the nominal debt when considering inflation that eats away at the savings of so many people.

Decade of debt

Click to enlarge.

This chart shows the national debt from Jan 2000 until April 1, 2010. Notice that it more than doubled in this decade.

Source: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np