The figure then being projected for this year was above the $1,000bn mark for the first time. But in the few short months since, the number has rocketed much further \u201d\u201c to $1,800bn (\u00c2\u00a31,106bn, \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1,291bn) or 13 per cent of gross domestic product.<\/p>\n
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan watchdog, forecasts that the US will post deficits in excess of a trillion dollars in each of the next 10 years. Even on its relatively optimistic assumptions for economic growth, moreover, the CBO predicts national debt will double to 82 per cent of GDP in the next decade \u201d\u201c a level not seen since the second world war.<\/p>\n
This would push the US close to the chronic debt levels seen in Japan and Italy. \u201cPeople used to talk about America\u2019s long-term fiscal crisis,\u201d\u009d says Douglas Elmendorf, head of the CBO. \u201cThat crisis is now.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n