The NYT told readers that the budget deficit in the first nine months of the 2015 fiscal year was $365.2 billion and is projected to be $486 billion for the whole year. Feel informed?

Odds are that most readers don’t have much basis for determining whether this deficit is big or small (yes, it is lots of money). In times past the NYT had committed itself to putting numbers like this in some context that would make it understandable to readers. For fans of such context, the deficit is a bit less than 2.7 percent of GDP. It is somewhat smaller by this measure than last year’s deficit and is causing the debt to GDP ratio to edge downward.

That might have been useful information for readers. As it is, the NYT told readers that the deficit is a really big number.