The U.S. Debt Vortex

By Peter Coy on October 11, 2012

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The U.S. Debt Vortex

Special Report

Election Issue: Are You Better Off?
Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?
Our Election Issue Cover
Better Off: Stocks Will Never Fully Recover, Right?
After a North Carolina Factory Shutdown
Better Off: Did Those Bailout Billions Just Vanish?
Leaving Behind No Child Left Behind
Call It Chimerica: The U.S. and China Grow Ever Closer
Better Off: Have Taxes Gone Up in Last Four Years?
Is the U.S. Better Off? Ask a Cabdriver
Terrorism Has Shifted
Dodd-Frank: The 848-Page Financial Firewall
Better Off: How Damaging Was the Downgrade, Really?
The State of the Nation, Jan. 20, 2009
Is It Easier for You to Go and Buy Things in the Stores Than It Was Four Years Ago?
In Tough Times, Treat Yourself
The Obama Gun Surge
The Great Recession: An 'Affair' to Remember
Is There More or Less Unemployment in the Country Than There Was Four Years Ago?
Unemployment and the Stimulus: A Timeline
Life at Zero Percent
The 5 Million Green Jobs That Weren't
The Plight of the Long-Term Unemployed
Is America as Respected Throughout the World as It Was?
Foreign Policy: Obama Mended Some Ties and Strained Others
'Made in USA' Still Sells
The Gap Between Rich and Poor Widens
The Inequality Incentive
Do You Feel That Our Security Is as Safe, That We’re as Strong as We Were Four Years Ago?
Drones: The Morality of War From the Sky
Osama bin Laden Is Dead
Americans Left Iraq. Afghanistan Is Winding Down
Obamacare Is Not an Epithet
So ... Are You Better Off?
The State of the Nation, Oct. 10, 2012
The Answer—and What Comes Next
Are We Better Off? You Tell Us

In 2000 the Congressional Budget Office projected that by 2011 the federal government would be a net lender to the rest of the world, to the tune of more than $2 trillion. Instead, it finished fiscal 2011 with a net debt of more than $10 trillion. The biggest contributors to this stunning reversal may surprise you.