This is really the start of the very familiar political arguments about the role of government spending and economic growth. The chart above shows the relationship between debt and growth. As the size, scope and role of government changed drastically under Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, the US posted its biggest-ever peacetime debt increase. The debt jumped by 150% from 1930 to 1939, when it was at around $40.44 billion (about $673 billion in today's money.) At the same time, the economy--the bottom of the formula--collapsed, as did government revenues, which suffered from lower economic activity. The result? A new debt-to-GDP record of 44% in 1934. And this was all before Pearl Harbor.