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In a recent tweet, a talented financial analyst and investor stated: “The “debt is unsustainable” narrative has been around for 40 years plus. What’s astonishing to me is how the people who push this narrative never ask themselves, “Why has it been sustainable for so long?”.There is a widespread idea that the fiscal imbalances of a world reserve currency issuer would end in an Argentina-style bankruptcy. However, the manifestation of unsustainability did not even appear as drastic in Argentina itself. Hey, Argentina continues to exist, doesn’t it?Excessive public debt is unsustainable when it becomes a burden on productive growth and...

The message is clear. Those that acted responsibly are being penalized all because of President Biden’s vote-buying scheme. While some are praising President Biden’s announcement of up to $20,000 in student loan debt cancellation per recipient, for the overwhelming majority of Americans, the message is clear- do the right thing, work hard, play by the rules and get punished for it. This program is an insult to every parent who worked multiple jobs, sacrificed, and forwent vacations, just so their child could graduate from college debt free; to students who worked full-time so that they could pay for their college;...

One of the big arguments against government borrowing comes from James Buchanan, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1986. In his book Public Principles of Public Debt, he argued against government borrowing because he claimed that the public enjoy the benefits of public expenditures while the debts incurred pass along to future generations for settlement. Buchanan surmised that if residents endure no consequences for funds borrowed and spent, little constraint exists to dampen the fiery spending aspirations of government bureaucrats and leaders. It would not be very different from a person indulging every consumptive whim while handing the...

The Biden stimulus package is truly epic in size. It would be more than twice the size of the 2009 Obama budget stimulus and would come on top of the more than US$3 trillion in Covid-19 budget stimulus measures enacted last year. It would also be coming at a time that the U.S. registered a record budget deficit last year, which raised our public debt to GDP ratio to over 100 percent. That ratio was higher than that which prevailed after the Second World War. Mr. Biden is justifying his spending proposal on the grounds that all too many people...

An internal government report seen by Die Welt am Sonntag predicts that Germany will have to take on uncontrollable debt if it doesn't start making huge budget cuts now. It's the same old problem: not only Germans are living longer than ever before, they're not producing enough offspring to replace them in the workforce. The result will be levels of debt reaching 220 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2060 - well above the 60 percent limit for EU member states set out by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 - experts from inside Wolfgang Schaeuble's finance ministry have calculated....

Despite all talks of austerity, £1,521.2 billion was the UK’s public debt at the end of the financial year 2013/14, as much as – be prepared for this, but probably you already are - 87.8% of GDP. The Office for National Statistics, the source of these data, in a recent release also informs that this debt represented an increase of £100.6 billion compared to the end of 2012/13. Still according to the ONS, government borrowing, excluding the effects of bank bail-outs, was £11.8 billion in September 2014, £1.6 billion higher than September 2013. Without all their many zeros, these...

French public debt decreased in 2013, but is still higher than expected. Total debt continues to climb and fails to meet the Maastricht criteria. EurActiv France reports. Despite austerity measures, France’s public deficit did not meet its government targets for 2013. The French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) published figures showing that it currently stands at 4.3% of GDP. The French government expected this percentage to be 4.1%, whilst the European Commission predicted 4.2%. However timid, the reduction of public deficit from its previous level of 4.9%, in 2013, is still a significant improvement. …

On the same day House Speaker John Boehner said he would bring a “clean” debt ceiling bill to the House floor—and join Democrats in voting for a 13-month extension of the debt limit—the head of the Congressional Budget Office declared that the “large and growing federal debt” could eventually increase the risk of a “fiscal crisis.” […] CBO estimates that federal debt held by the public will equal 74 percent of GDP at the end of this year and 79 percent in 2024 (the end of the current 10-year projection period). Such large and growing federal debt could have serious...

Puerto Rico’s Senate approved several measures late Thursday aimed at helping the U.S. territory take on new loans and better manage its ability to repay an existing $70 billion public debt, an issue that has worried investors. One measure would create a corporation responsible for issuing bonds to help pay and refinance some of the $590 million in debt held by the island’s municipalities. The corporation would use a portion of revenues generated through an existing sales and use tax to guarantee payment. As a result, municipalities would see a slight drop in revenues they receive through the tax. Another...

Please note that the current debt limit is $16.699 trillion. Debt to the Penny Interestingly, the US Treasury website Debt to the Penny and Who Hold It shows the current public debt as 16,747,429,285,635.12 (the same as Nick shows in the above chart). Treasury Stops Updating National Debt You do not have to be a math genius to figure out that "debt to the penny" already exceeds the debt limit. I asked Nick about that and he replied ... Since mid-May, "debt to the penny" hasn't been rising. When they postponed raising the debt limit they stopped showing any increase...

Just one day after the Boston Marathon bombings, Sen. Mark Warner said fiscal troubles hamstringing the nation are a greater threat to Americans’ well-being than terrorism. “In my mind, with the tragedy of yesterday, the issue of this national debt is a greater threat to our nation and our future than any terrorist action,” the Virginia Democrat told an audience at an awards dinner in Washington Tuesday night, Politico reported. “We will not be destroyed from the outside.” …

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Everyone knows America has too much debt. What they don’t know is that things are getting better, not worse. Little by little, our economy is reducing its debt burden, slowly repairing the damage caused by 10, 20 or 30 years of excess. If you want to know why economic growth has been so tepid, here’s your answer. Four years after the storm hit, the economy is still deleveraging. And it’s very hard for any economy to grow when everyone is focused on increasing their savings.

Italy's public debt hit an all-time high in June of almost €2 trillion and the annual budget deficit was also bigger than a year before, due largely to Italy's share of bailouts for other eurozone states, the central bank announced. Public debt at the end of June rose €6.6 billion to €1.973 trillion, the Bank of Italy said yesterday (13 August), as the Treasury's cash reserves increased by €10.3 billion. Italy's benchmark bond yields remain close to 6% despite tough austerity measures introduced by Prime Minister Mario Monti's government. With the country mired in a deep recession, markets are skeptical...

(CNSNews.com) - At the close of business on Aug. 31--for the first time in the history of the country--the publicly held debt of the federal government topped $10 trillion, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department at 4:00 p.m. yesterday. During Obama's presidency, debt held by the public has now increased by $3.71694 trillion--or almost 59 percent from the $6.3073 trillion in debt held by the public that the government owed to its creditors on Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated.Also, according to the most recent reports available from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, approximately $6.1...

Power Line Blog held a prize competition for $100,000 for whoever can most effectively and creatively dramatize the significance of the federal debt crisis. Any creative product was eligible: videos, songs, paintings, screenplays, Power Point presentations, essays, performance art, or anything else. Several entries have gotten a lot of attention and a lot of views or listens. But unquestionably, the one that has most gone viral so far is Doorbell. www.ntrc.info/doorbell.html

The American government is at risk of defaulting on their debt. To remedy it, they want to go into even more debt. This cannot go on forever. It has to stop.

A global public debt crisis, in which private sector deleveraging is offset by public debt, to the point where Reinhart and Rogoff say "no more" (and often times beyond) has only four possible outcomes. These are: 1) a debt trap; 2) hyperinflation; 3) austerity but in conjunction with actual economic growth and 4) default. Currently in the developed world, the only two outcomes actively pursued, are (1), the debt trap, best seen in the US, where the only solution to debt is "more debt", and half of (3), ... First a look at the the sad reality of what is...

America's public debt recently exceeded 13 trillion. This is more than 90 percent of the country's GDP. Public debts of more than 60 percent of GDP are considered unhealthy. Public debts above 90 percent of GDP cause severe disruptions in the country's financial framework and the economy at large. According to the Obama administration, America's public debt will exceed 100 percent of GDP in the next fiscal year. History shows that most countries whose debt exceeds this mark are rarely able to control it. This level of indebtedness usually leads to currency debasement. There are a few historical examples whereby...

Japan nearing debt crisis, says ex-BOJ Taya May 17, 2010 TOKYO, May 17 — Japan is likely to face a sovereign debt crisis in three to four years as its current account balance is expected to fall into deficit, former Bank of Japan board member Teizo Taya said today. “Three to four years from now I expect a sovereign debt crisis to hit Japan and long-term interest rates to surge,” Taya said in an interview with Reuters. He said the government would probably only start reforming the tattered public finances after such a crisis emerges, driving up government financing costs....

In a recent American Thinker article, "The Dollar's Inevitable Demise," author Vasko Kohlmayer compares the federal debt to the American economy, or GDP. Mr. Kohlmayer begins his article by correctly pegging GDP at "roughly $14 trillion." Then he trots out the "total public debt," which he puts at "nearly $13 trillion." That would mean the federal debt is currently equal to more than 92.8 percent of GDP. But one must understand that the "total public debt" figure cited consists of two parts: hard debt and soft debt. The hard debt is the real debt. And the soft debt consists...