Thanks! Here's the sites you want to visit. www.dol.gov with emphasis on
the statistics. Shows best employment rate at 1983 and a marked decline
from 1992 to 1998 roughly with a spike from there to 2000. The figures only
go back to 1948.

No conclusions drawn, draw your own.

Another good site for those of you who think we had balanced budgets or
surpluses is:

www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

You can check back a couple hundred years. But for recent years compare the
amount of surplus claimed with the increase in debt.

What I did notice was the rate of debt increase slowed in the 90's. I would
attribute this to the increased sale of US Gov't financial instruments use
to finance the annual shortfalls, which changed from long term low interest
to short term high interest.

Be interesting to see what happens when those come due.

Back to the safety of the ______ early next week. I fly half way round the
world and meet the new ship in my favorite port of ______. Did you know in
_____ you can be DVD movies (three on a disk sometimes) for as little as
$3.00 US? Time to stock up on a supply for the new sailboat! Would that
make me a real pirate?

________ by the way is located in the _______Gulf. Just in case you were
wondering.

M.

Thanks for the links.

Here is a brief comment-

Michael wrote:
What I did notice was the rate of debt increase slowed in the 90's. I would
attribute this to the increased sale of US Gov't financial instruments use
to finance the annual shortfalls

Sigh... another basic fact of economics wrong. When the Federal Reserve
sells financial instruments, (T-bills and T-bonds), the US debt does not
change. Those instruments have already been issued, the debt has already
been incurred. What changes is the money supply, often referred to as
M1, M2, or M3.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MoneySupply.html

Don't thank me, it's what I'm here for!

If you want to see some interesting economic facts that are not in any
public discussion I'm aware of, see

http://www.ny.frb.org/aboutthefed/fedpoint/fed49.html




Be interesting to see what happens when those come due.

US debt has been coming due now for the past 200+ years. So far only
very little doubt about Uncle Sam honoring his debt obligations... but
it is certainly possible that we will see double digit inflation again.
That will be quite a shock to Gen-X and the younger crowd!

Regards
Doug King