What a difference a decade makes.  In a January 2001 report, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the US government would eliminate its debt within five years, and "be $2.3 trillion in the black," according to a new paper from the Pew Charitable Trusts.  Of course, that did not happen, and the Pew paper sets out to explain why.  Here is a helpful chart from the report:

Read The Great Debt Shift Drivers of Federal Debt Since 2001 here. 

We learned about the Pew report from Planet Money.  As it turns out, the CBO wasn't the only place a decade ago where economists were projecting the US government paying off its debt.  Economists in the Clinton White House identified this potential problem as well.  That's right, problem.  These economists were concerned at how ending federal debt might set off a series of negative ripple effects through the economy.  So Jason Seligman, who was working at the Council of Economic Advisers, authored a report on the potential effects of "too little" debt.  The report was never published.  But Planet Money's David Kestenbaum got his hands on the report.  He and Alex Blumberg talked about the report with Seligman on the latest Planet Money podcast:

Planet Money provides access to the report here.