Currently Projected U.S. Budget Deficits Or Surpluses Fiscal Years 2000 To 2022

[Click on graph for enlargement.]

The deficit in 2009 was about 10 percent of GDP. The vertical line is today.

Congressional Budget Office

"CBO expects economic activity to quicken after 2013 but to remain below the economy’s potential until 2018. ... As economic growth picks up after 2013, the unemployment rate will gradually decline to around 7 percent by the end of 2015, before dropping to near 5½ percent by the end of 2017."

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Added:

"The number of jobless in the 17 countries of the single currency Eurozone bloc rose in December for an eighth consecutive month to 16.5m – roughly the population of the Netherlands."

Financial Times