A century of state and local debt

State and local debt started out the 20th century just under 10 percent of GDP. In the 1920s it increased to about 15 percent of GDP and then rocketed to nearly 35 perent of GDP in the deflationary years of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In World War II state and local debt plummeted down to 7 percent of GDP before recording to about 13 percent of GDP by the 1960s.

Since the 1980s state and local debt has slowly increased from about 11 percent of GDP to 18 percent of GDP.

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