1.Big Numbers Coming for Deficit…View In Relation to GDP.
Barrons
March 18: Just how big could fiscal stimulus get? During the Great Recession, the federal budget deficit peaked around 10% of gross domestic product. Were the federal government to run a similar deficit this year, it would amount to about $2.2 trillion.
But even this 10% figure probably does not represent the true upper bound on federal borrowing. During World War II, the federal budget deficit peaked at nearly 30% of GDP in 1943, and was more than 20% each year in the 1943-45 period.
A federal budget deficit of 30% of GDP today would amount to nearly $7 trillion. Of course, financing these deficits required extraordinary efforts, such as sizable war-bond programs and direct coordination between the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. While we doubt the fiscal response will be anything quite that big, the federal government possesses significant fiscal ammunition, particularly when real interest rates on Treasury securities remain negative.—Michael Pugliese
https://www.barrons.com/articles/wall-street-views-on-the-virus-the-economy-and-the-markets-51584748842?mod=past_editions
We were at recession level deficits before recession.
http://www.crfb.org/blogs/deficit-has-never-been-high-when-economy-was-strong
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