"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
BTW using your skewed numbers the 1997 debt is only 0.19% less than 2002.

The numbers aren't skewed. And yes, I know the difference is very slight
and
acknowledged the same in my earlier post on this same issue.

The numbers are skewed, they are not the actual dollars, the are adjusted
using the CPI.
If you wanted to compare the buying power of different year GDP's you would
use this number.

Nice try yourself.
I used actual dollars, you used the CPI (Chained price index).
When comparing the percent of national debt to GDP the CPI is not used.
To
compute the GDP/Debt ratio you must use actual dollars

According to whom?

The Federal Government-

This spreadsheet shows the actual dollars in GDP for each year
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget...s/hist01z2.xls

This spreadsheet shows the actual debt in dollars for each year.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget...s/hist07z1.xls

Pay particular attention to columns G,H, and I. These are the percentages of
GDP to debt sorted in Gross, Held by Government, and Held by Public.
These percentages are calculated using actual dollars, run the numbers
yourself.