This mess is going to reach a boiling point soon, I can feel it.
This is really not a good thing.
"Pff, we've got the best debt! No one has bigger debt than we do!"
What I wonder is when the federal debt actually starts mattering and shit gets fucking done about it.
The party of fiscal conservatives everyone!
All the talk about debt and deficit in both the US and UK has really disappeared since 2016, like it used to be this huge crisis but no one mentions it anymore even though it's gotten worse if anything.
If you keep spending it will go away
Because conservatives shout about it all the time when not in power, and then immediately forget that they care once they're in power.
maybe it wasn't quite the huge crisis they said it would be and were only focusing on it to garner votes.
Fiscal conservatives don't exist, just social conservatives who shout about the issues when it's a strong political lever.
It's always been bullshit, it's just see through now.
I'm increasingly convinced government debt is just a means for the middle aged and elderly to avoid paying taxes while leaching government services, passing on the debt to younger generations.
Because the party of fiscal responsibility is in power!
the US debt is actually incredibly important, while I hate trump and his debt increasing antics, most of our debt is from chinese owning our bonds.
our treasury bonds are hands down the safest investment in the world. They did this because they simply had no way to convert the shear amount of US dollars flowing into China from all the stuff we buy from them. Their solution? Bonds! this in turn stabilizes both of our economies. Downside: it also means we're pretty heavily linked with regards to our economies, so if the US economy fails then China would probably collapse.
IIRC most of the american debt (in the form of treasury bonds) is owned by US citizens, china is just the largest single country which owns the largest number of bonds outside of the US.
I'll try to find the article I read that says this.
People really don't realize just what would happen if the US economy fails, it would be a second great depression - perhaps even worse.
This is perhaps one of the largest reasons nobody is talking about the US's debt that much globally, they're basically trying to pretend it doesn't exist
The last time the US economy collapsed it created the political landscape that lead to a world war. I have little doubt another collapse like it will lead to something similar. Only this time one of the United States' biggest rivals owns a large chunk of their debt. What's the bet they ask for geopolitical concessions from the US to write that debt off?
It's kinda' funny to think that this is also the president who was talking about defaulting on the debt during the election campaign too, lol.
If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem.
But if you owe a million, it has.
Except mechanically it's more like a bank owing you a million pounds. Except instead of a normal bank, it's a free bank that isn't bound by the need to transfer reserves between itself and other banks in order to clear transactions. And instead of wanting the million pounds ASAP you are actually very happy to have the million pound bond equivalent and grateful you managed to win out over everyone else who was clamouring for the stuff.
I think if you're concerned about the federal debt of the US or any other country that faces similar operational realities beyond poking it in the face of those that claimed they wanted to reduce it, then perhaps you need to do some research beyond standard political debt hysteria talking points.
And if you're still wedded to the thought that the federal government is somehow constrained in the same manner as perhaps a very successful business that everyone wants to invest in for some reason, please keep in mind that if you got hysterical about a business being in a debt worth less than 10% of its physical assets you'd probably get some very odd looks
Here's the real reason to be concerned about the federal debt: In 2019 the projected interest payments, just the interest, will exceed 1 trillion.
Read that sentence a couple times and then think about where that road goes very quickly. That's more than what's being spent on the military this year.
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