United States Federal Deficit Graph

As you can see in the graph the U.S. federal deficit has not been this small since 2008. This might seem surprising since 2008 was the year with all the major bank failures. Yet it is quite likely that the (long lasting) recession of 2009 created a lot more costs for the government than those bank failures. The current recovery is seen in the outlays as well as in the revenues.

NY Times

Projected 2013 Government Deficit

With OECD data this chart graphs the projected government balance for 2013, for most developed and emerging countries. Japan has the biggest projected deficit, of over 10 percent. Slovenia, Ireland and the U.K are also running big deficits. Contrary to the number of countries with a deficit, there are only a few that are expected to have a budget surplus. Examples are Norway and Switzerland.

Sober Look

2012 Euro Area Bond Yields

Compared to the beginning of the year, especially Greek and Portuguese, bond yields have come down quite a lot during the year. As is noted in the graph the Greek debt restructuring for Greek debt and the verbal commitment by the ECB president Draghi in July dampened the exit and breakup risk and hence brought down sovereign debt yields.

Where will the bond yields go in 2013?

The Economist

EU Countries 2012 Government Debt Projections

Reuters constructed this graph, with data from the European Commission, which shows the projected government debt ratio's for the selected EU countries. As you cansee for most countries the debt to gdp ratio is well above it's 10 year average.

As you might have expected Greece has the highest debt to gdp ratio. On the other hand, Sweden's debt is even lower than it's 10 year average. Euro Area avearge government debt is expected to be at 95 percent.

Reuters

Fiscal Cliff: $607 Billion Automatic Budget Deficit Reduction

Reuters shows in this graph the reduction in the budget deficit that will take place automatically when Democrats and Republicans in Washington don't reach an agreement before the end of the year about how to avoid the fiscal cliff. The biggest part of the reduction comes from the Bush-era tax cuts that expire: 221 billion dollar. Payroll tax relief expiring (95 billion) is also a big tax increase. One of the budget cuts is that Emergency Unemployment benefits will expire.

Will Washington let this happen?

Reuters

Scandinavia Versus The Euro Zone

The economies Sweden and Norway in Scandinavia grow faster and both have a lower unemployment rate than the average of the Euro Zone. Fiscal positions are also considrably better in Norway and Sweden. The manufacturing indicator is slowing down for these countries lately as well though.

Thompson Reuters

United States Federal Income And Expenses (2011)

Income tax and payroll tax (which employers hold from wages, also social security contributions) are the major sources of income for the United States fedral government. 

This income is then used mostly for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defence.

Dutch Economy in 8 Graphs

With the Dutch elections today this chart may come in handy. The Dutch economy is doing 'better' for most of the indicators than the Euro zone average. Late tonight (local time) the first estimation of the results are expected. A close result between the right party (VVD) and the left party (PVDA) is very likely. A colation needs to be formed to make the new government.

Reuters

French 10-year Bond Yield History

This graph from Bank of America shows the history of the interest rate of the French government. Besides the spike in borrowing costs during the French Revolution, what is also interesting is the continuous decline in interest rate since the 1970s.

Business Insider

EU VAT-Rates Compared

The value added tax raises the price on consumer goods. Almost all EU countries had a higher VAT-rate in 2012 compared to 2000. Perhaps surprisingly, Hungary has the highest VAT-rate, followed by Scandinavian Denmark and Sweden. Cyprus, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Romania particularly saw their VAT rising in the last twelve years. Except for Cyprus, all of these countries have now a higher rate than the average for the EU of 21 percent.

Reuters

Spain Government Debt History (1980-2012)

Spain's economy knew many dificulties after the transition of Spain to a democrocy in the late 1970s. You can see this in the growing government  debt as a percentage of GDP since 1980. Since a few years before the introduction of the euro Spain had a rapid economic growth with a massive decline in public debt (to GDP) as you can see. Since the collapse of the economy with the financial crisis the debt has exploded, but is still relatively low compared to Italy, Greece and Ireland.

Trading Economics

Spanish 10-year Bond Yield History (1821-2012)

This graph shows the Spanish bond yield (10-year) history. The historical average interest rate seems to be around 8 percent. A rate, which the Spanish bonds haven't reached yet since the introduction of the Euro.

The Big Picture

Non-financial U.S. Total Debt

This graph, with data from the United States Federal Reserve, shows the total Credit Market Debt Owed. In other words, this is the total debt outstanding in the United States. That includes both public and private debt, with private debt consisting of households, financial companies and non-financial companies.

You can see that since the 1970s the growth of total debt (red line) started to exceed the growth in the national income. Now total market debt is about four times as high as the national income (GDP).

Business Insider

Japanese Government Debt Approaching 250 Percent

Although the interest rate the Japanse government pays on its debt is one of the lowest, the debt it has is the highest debt as a percentage of GDP in the world.

Reuters

Greece Economic Overview (May 2012)

Overview of the Greece economy (May 2012). Especially notice the consumer confidence and the collapsed new car registrations.

OECD Government Budget History: Deficit versus surplus

The Economist posted this interesting chart with the budget historty from several countries. On the top a smaller group of countries over a longer time and on the bottom a bigger group of countries over a smaller time. Unfortunately there was no data available for both more countries and over a longer period. What both graphs show though is that most countries had a lot more years with a budget deficit than years with a budget surplus. Many economists advice governments to buildup debt-ratio in a recession and lower the debt-ratio in a boom. Because there were more deficit years that surplus years, this wasn't the case. Overall, in the long run government debt ratio's on average increased.

Due to a request by the Economist this graph has been removed. 

View graph here

Government Debt And Deficit Euro Zone Members 2012 (Expected)

This graph from the Rabobank shows the fiscal positions of the Euro Zone members (orange) compared to the UK, US and Japan (blue). National debt is on the horizontal axis and deficit on the vertical axis. Numbers are expections from European Comission and IMF.

Notice that the U.S. and Japan have way worse fiscal positions than the Euro Area. Well known is that Greece and Italy have the biggest government debt compared to the GDP in the two economies. Ireland and Portugal are getting closer and closer to Italy though.

Sectoral Balance Sheets Euro Zone

This chart from the OECD shows per sector the net lending/borrowing for the Euro Zone. As you can see the household and the financial sectors are net lending sectors and the non-financial corporations and governments are net borrowing sectors. This means for example for the households that they save more than they borrow for a sector as a whole. This doesn't mean that the borrowing of the households doesn't increase on the other hand.

The total economy shows the net lending/borrwing of the total Euro Zone economy. In  other words when the Euro Zone as a total economy is borrowing, it borrows from the rest of the world, which was the case before the crisis.

Before the crisis households en companies increased their borrowing notably. Since the crisis households and companies started do pay off their debt. Although as you were able to see in other posts this is a long process. The lower demand by the households and the companies was accommodated by an increase in government spending (higher borrowing).

OECD

EU Old Age Dependency Ratio in 2060

This graph from Reuters shows the Old-age dependency ratio. That ratio shows the people being 65 and over for the countries in the EU as a percentage of the people between 15 and 64. A higher ratio means that the working force needs to finance a larger elderly population, compared to countries with a lower ratio. Reuters calls it the pressure on the productive population.

Reuters

Economies of Italy and Spain Compared (March 2012)

Before the crises started in 2008 the economy in Spain grew remarkably faster than in Italy. Since the crisis started Spain is still doing relatively better (or rather less bad) again, as you can see in the first graph on the left. While that happened Spain's unemployment, while being almost the same as for Italy in 2007, was more than double the rate of Italy in 2011. Spain again is doing better for the government debt, although it increased a lot more since the crises than in Italy, so the two graphs on the bottom show.

Spain and Italy's bond yields were closely tied in the last five years. In late 2011 Italy's bond yields sparked above that of Spain, but since a few weeks Italy's yields have come down to around Spain's yield again.