Footnote
Our charts from Friday about the City of Portland's frightening debt trends prompted one reader to suggest that we display the figures in inflation-adjusted dollars, given that a dollar in 1997 bought a lot more than it does today. It's a good point, and so here are the two charts, revised to take inflation into account:
Even taking inflation into account, those are sobering pictures. Go by streetcar!
| Posted at 7:49 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
Orange means no CPI adjustment?
Posted by Jennifer | July 9, 2012 8:39 AM
Maybe a marker for what happened when Randy got elected?
Posted by Steve | July 9, 2012 8:42 AM
If my body weight continues to mimic the yearly increases in these charts I should be the last one to starve to death when we all run out of money for food.
Posted by gibby | July 9, 2012 9:19 AM
gibby...I now need a new keyboard!
Posted by portland native | July 9, 2012 9:39 AM
Orange = without inflation adjustment
Purple = in 2012 dollars
Posted by Jack Bog | July 9, 2012 1:03 PM
One more adjustment that would be interesting is Debt vs Tax base.
(That ratio would not need a CPI adjustment since the tax base in a given year would be measured in the same $ as the debt).
A larger City might be expected to have a proportionally larger debt.
Posted by Max Rockbin | July 9, 2012 2:44 PM