Here's an interesting comparison of the national debt of the US to the debt of Canada, over time. Does anyone notice how they both took off at about the same time? Both countries started taking on some debt starting a little before 1945. Later, the debt levels of both countries really took off exponentially in about 1975 and after.
It took off in the USA first in the 1960s, with the deficits caused by the Vietnam War. Canada's debt only skyrocketed after the private banks made the Trudeau (pere) minority government stop the Bank of Canada from issuing most of the money, so the government had to borrow it from them (i.e., have them issue it) at interest instead. In the 45 years since, the profits of Canadian private banks have increased by an order of magnitude as a fraction of GDP.
