Basically the plan for the last 30+ years. Once it’s handed off to the other party you complain about why it’s so high then promptly ignore it once you’re back in power.
I think we failed to properly frame the political attitude behind reducing fiscal deficit. It is never intended for current growth, it is intended for security of the generations to come, with the needs of the aging population in mind.
@@ad_astra468 Obama got a second term through thanks to being the most charismatic US politician since Roosevelt. I highly doubt the deficit had much to do with it.
Why would the US electorate reward politicians for taking money out of their pocket? A deficit is a net transfer of wealth away from the government and to the private sector
I seen these one before lol there alway a but "we really needed these cool thing and it going to the budget". The Republican are alway the one that bring up debt ceiling but they have no leg to stand on that topic , cause they last time they hold power on both Congress, Senate, and White House they create space force, wage a trade war with all USA trade partners and create a new tax code all of which increase the spending like crazy.
@@sirsurnamethefirstofhisnam7986 let me explain. The US practically cannot pay off their debt and the deficit is crazy high so what do we do? Borrow more money, improve the economy, de value the dollar since it's a fixed value, incentivise production from companies by lowering investment tax, Demand📈 Production📈 Production attracts investors Demand increases production Increase demand by lowering investment tax and lowering interest rates to increase demand and borrowing Borrowing=incentivises investment This was shown when Japan barely had any people borrowing and so there are offshore investors who use the yen with a really low interest rate use it to invest on something they get big returns and pay off the loan and interest and get the rest, one of the less risky investment is the US Treasury bond.
@@grimaffiliations3671 who's gonna pay it back? we could default on our debts if we don't cut some public spending, go into a painful few years, before coming out better than before.
Still waiting for the takeover of "Octavia" that the Onion proclaimed all those years ago 😅🤷🏻♀️ Seems the most sensible idea either partie has, to combat the debt 🙈
Voters care about the idea of reducing the deficit, but as soon as you propose a specific way to do it (cut a program/spending, raise a tax), people always say it's not worth it. Can't way to deal with the consequences of this spending as I get older!
@speedy01247 the rich already pay the majority of tax.. if you want to stop deficit. Then take care of Curruption at many levels of government California has this issue on steroids.. millions for a toilet, millions for homes for migrants and not Americans, not to mention the social services that need tones of money but have no results You want to stop bleeding money? Institute goals for all those programs and gov offices.. and if they are not performing with aloted money, a criminal investigation should take place
@@jeffmiesen Oh, there are reasons. E.g. If infrastructure wasn't maintained properly due to chronic underfunding, and then we finally decide to replace/repair it, that cost will spike the spending numbers for that year. Really, the maintenance spending was artificially low in prior years, which makes the denominator low, which makes the percent increase look even higher on paper.
True, but blame the voters. Clinton put the US in a great fiscal place by actually balancing the budget, and voters immediately voted in Republicans who promptly wrecked the defecit with unfunded tax cuts. Voters told politicians they want free money (with free meaning that future generations have to pay for it).
It won't cause why would it? What entity will punish the US for it? The US owns it's own debt and it's in dollars which the government has an infinite supply of. With Greece they were dependent on the ECB and the ECB and EU in general really screwed them over badly. They didn't have to do this, they choose to do this to punish Greece and set an example. The US government doesn't lease the territory of the US, it has sovereignty over it. "Debt" is entirely fictitious, it comes from the power of the one you owe debt too and what they decide to do. The federal reserve can't dictate to the house or the president that they need to cut spending the way the ECB can. If they were to try then the head will just be replaced.
@@starscream6657 It definitely won't happen tomorrow, or in a year, or five years. Maybe one day the US will reach a point when they go bankrupt, but that usually does not happen the before 180% debt to GDP, depending on the interest on the borrowed money.
As long as US is the global military and economic hegemon, only domestic debt really matters and international debt is close to meaningless. US holds the leverage over the rest of the world not the other way around, and China has no way of making US pay.
@@MVargictechnically the world (or at least Russia, China and their allies) could threaten an embargo or even military actions if the US don’t pay. It’s unlikely for now, but it could happen a decade from now
@@whitezombie10 Even trying to go about it that way would almost certainly cause far more harm than whatever amount of money they might get out of the USA by attempting that. And on the note of military actions... yeah that's not happening this century unless the US Military suddenly falls off super fucking hard. At this point the US has almost well and truly reached the latter half of the "If you owe the bank 100 dollars that's your problem, if you owe the bank 100 million dollars that is the Banks problem" quote.
@@whitezombie10 US navy and air power are stronger and more numerous than the entire world outside of NATO combined, and a more technologically advanced too. Russia is a failing petrostate burning through its military reserves and China is on the precipice of the mother of all demographic collapses. As long as US doesnt defund its military it will always hold the high ground
I don't think so. Unlike bitcoin the US currency is grounded by the US economy and the US empire. US businesses HAVE to accept US dollars and US citizens HAVE to pay their taxes in US dollars. So the power of the US means the bubble can't burst. The only way the US currency can become worthless is if the government becomes too weak to enforce the use of it's currency (like happened in Weimar Germany).
Talking about her intentions with gaza didn't help her campaign either. She might as well play the brutally honest politician. Might not be very likeable but it's much preferred to Trump who spews out lies at every chance he gets.
@@vinny4765 "but it's much preferred" No it isn't. Promising a harsh reality compared to promising an unfeasible fantasy will get absolutely no one energized to vote for you. Political elections are at their core popularity contests, Debbie downer is not popular.
@vinny4765 She was brutally honest when she accused Joe Biden of being a segregationist back in democrat presidential debate in 2020, said that she was a victim of segregation, sold t shirts over the fact that she was a victim, and pretended that she never ever said that when Joe Biden nominated her as the VP. And what about prosecuting black families for smoking weed, yet admitting on camera that she smoked weed at a podcast back in 2020? She can't even do a basic interview as a presidential candidate (which she rarely does) without Walz being her emotional support dog. Yet this women is running for the most powerful positions in the world. 🤡 Just sayin 🫤
@@petrairene yeah I'd say most are. I often think our "amazing economy" that economists lavish is mostly driven by the bad financial decisions of our citizens and poor financial education. There's endless content online of Americans talking about their crazy debts/interest payments. A lot of it reminds me of my parents circa 2007
If this issue isn't tackled in the next few decades, the speed of the world de- dollarization will only increase. Less than 20 years ago euro payments weren't acceptable in Turkey, nowadays dollars payments aren't. Many exporters to Europe are transitioning the same way. Bosnia and Herzegovina like some latin central america statets has transitioned to their local economical giant's currency(sometimes without legally abandoning their own currency). Many EU applicants or trade partners with questionable expertise in central bank and political system management are toying with following BiH's lead. Africa and mainly India and China in Asia will decide the speed of de- dollarization. Once the dollars isn't world currency any printing of new banknotes to pay old debts will decrease the vallue of the dollar, throwing USA in inflation cycle, which in turn increases the interest rate of the debt and therefore increase the debt payments.
@@БориславВълков-м7р India has accepted bi-lateral trade in regional currencies since, basically, independence. It's just that nobody actually wants to deal in rupee-denominated deposits. Russia uses its ruble accounts for trade there, for example, as does Australia in AUD-denominated accounts. The issue they have is purchasing things (like oil) using rupees or other foreign currency they have hold of... and those trade partners want USD still.
I stopped following the election a couple of weeks ago. American elections are bonkers. Anyone who knows anything about politics has already made their minds up.
Unfortunately the political strategy this election cycle is focused on Trump Trump wants to win, some saying that he will implement Project 2024 and pardon himself of all past convictions if he wins Harris wanting to stop Trump from winning to make sure Project 2024 isn’t implemented and Trump doesn’t pardon himself
We have one side who suddenly very much cares about the deficit only when the other is in power but explodes the deficit with tax cuts whenever they are in power.
Exactly. If we wanted to prioritize the shrinking of the deficit, we should have rewarded the Democrats with further victories after Bill Clinton left office. But nah, Republicans stole that election because we didn't give Dems the bigger margin of victory they deserved, so now here we are
A flat tax for everyone that has the added bonus of scaring off forgien investment. If they lose World reserve currency status its gonna get real bad for america real quick
A lot of it is because politicians have failed to communicate why the deficit is a problem for ordinary people (Namely, that more tax money goes toward paying the interest than on defence, let alone public services) and so voters stopped caring.
America pays ~15% of its government revenue on interest. If it ever went up past 50% that would be insane and then we should start worrying. The reason no one cares about the debt is because people always focused on the wrong metric (debt to gdp) when they should have been focused on how much government revenue goes into paying annual debt service.
America can effortlessly print 15% of its government budget with a click. As long as it doesn't cause too rapid inflation the amount of money spent on interest doesn't matter by itself. The bulk of recent inflation, especially food, was caused by monopolistic price gouging by corporations after most of their small business competitors were destroyed from covid lockdown, as well as mass buyouts of housing and intentional constriction of supply by predatory wall street and the elite owner class, fortunately inflation rates have now decreased back to normal old levels , despite of the all time high debt.
@MVargic When people say 'print money to pay debt,' they're basically describing a process where the Treasury issues bonds, which are then bought by Wall Street traders and sold to the Federal Reserve. This process doesn't actually 'print' new money, but rather more borrowing to pay off debt service payments. The concern is that if the government relies too heavily on this process, it's essentially borrowing to pay off debt, which can lead to a default if investors lose confidence and stop buying Treasury bonds. Currently, interest payments account for 15% of government revenue, which is the highest it has been in a long time and it is manageable, but a significantly higher percentage (like 50%) could erode investor confidence and lead to serious issues... like investors not buying bonds.... this isn't Zimbabwe, the federal reserve by law can't directly buy US Treasury bonds. If investors don't want to buy anymore then that is the limiting factor. "Printing money" which is "issuing bonds" only happens because investors buy our bonds.
that's pretty cheap if you think about only 15 percent and look at where it was spent also remember the rock-bottom interest ratees from 2008-2015 good times.
Debt-to-GDP is the pretty standard metric internationally, as far as I'm aware. The logic being it correlates with the tax rate which would be necessary to pay off the debt.
The problem is these are the interest from 15+ years ago that reached their payment deadline so they had to be paid so in 15 or something like that years a big part of today's dept will have to be paid the problem isn't right now the problem is that noone is fixing the issue and just making it worse with no end in sight.
@@user-iy3gx9qg4yyes, a recession was created by the private banking sector to allow them the right to credit creation. To help "save" the country from a problem they created.
The real reason is mention at 7:22 ie the dollar being the world reserve currency (mainly due to Bretton Woods in 1944), america can print money like there is no tomorrow. The moment the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the US will collapse due to its addition to debit. This is not an impossibility, china and some other countries (eg the BRICS) are already working on this. However it is not likely to happen in the near future.
Too big to fail, if they did fall they everyone is going down with them. Plus, that all are thinking "Just kick the can down the road, won't be my problem"
There isn't a "conservative" and a "liberal" party, only candidates which represent different factions of the party, clinton had more in common with trump than either obama and biden while bush jr was more similar to obama than anything
Stop thinking in the left /right paradigm. The 'conservatives' are no more for reducing the debt than the 'Liberals' are for reducing corporate monopolies.
Enjoyed this. Very interesting! As US citizen, I can confirm that people used to talk about the debt in handwringing fashion, and now don’t seem to talk about it at all
4:59 I think only Americans can understand the phobia most Americans have against taxes. It is absolutely imposible to have a reasonable conversation (let alone discussion) about taxes with these people. It's like trying to convince a German that their bread is not undisputably the best bread in the world.
I wish more politicians would focus their plans on _efficient_ bills, like limiting speculative real estate, rather than just wildly tossing money at their problems and hoping they go away.
No, the real reason is one of narrative. Republicans have always been the ones to push the narrative that democrats spend too much on welfare. However the reality is that with both Reagan and Bush they massively blew up the debt however both times it was swept under the rug. This time though democrats didn't let that happen and they kept reminding people that it was Trump who blew up the debt and spend 3 times more than Biden did. The "debt" has never been a good faith argument cause for a country that dominates finance it is pretty much irrelevant to begin with. The US spends over 5 times more on fossil fuel subsidies than it does on green energy but you never hear calls to cut those subsidies and allow fuel prices to triple. Megacorps like Amazon and Netflix haven't paid any taxes in a long time cause they have the power to choose not to.
Exactly, they are just reapeting a conservative talking point that has no relation to how money works today, but the reality of money might be to abstract for many.,
@@the11382 The deficit is simply the difference between the amount of new money injected into the economy by govt spending and that which is taxed back. It doesn’t need to be repaid, and shouldn’t, unless you want to suck all the money out of the non govt sectors
The core reason is far simpler: American voters would rather have a tax cut, or a spending program, than a reduced deficit. This is a democracy, and the voters decide. Politicians who campaign on reducing the deficit consistently lose to those who campaign on cutting taxes or spending on programs. People here only care about the deficit when the other party is in power.
No it’s because the government has become a joke. Politicians only care about power and do things to retain power which hurt all of America at later date. Both candidates spend a lot of money to appease their followers and then in a few dozen years we will suffer a Great Depression from this debt crisis.
I personally don't see deficits to be problem there great for the economy and help the citizens manage their debt as in like credit card, mortgage etc. Without deficits there would be a lot of economic strife and bifurcation of society into "haves" and "have nots"
Japan has over 200% debt to gdp last 3 decades nothing happened. It's just number as long has investor has faith in the USA economy. Don't forget USA is still cleanest of all advanced economy countries.
@@SnabbKassa so as the USA our no 1 debtor is Federal Reserve itself. We are leaving in corrupt Ponzi scheme society which are designed to help elite. Government always doesn't address the root cause finds the way to kick the can down the road.
Just a fwi. If that default. The people will have to pay it. It's 78k to 104k per person. Now yes they can keep raising the debt limit. But Venezuela did that and... 1 usd is 100000k dollars there
Venezuela is fundamentally different as they were relying on a currency the government did not create (Us-dollars). How should the us go bankrupt in us-dollars if they are the only entitiy able to create it?
I have been Staying this for awhile:Both Democrats and Republicans are not Serious about US Debt,This coming from a Christian Republican!Great Educational Video!❤
The deficit has almost never been a Democratic talking point, despite them being the 'best' on it since it almost always goes down during modern Democratic presidencies and up during Republican presidencies. It's also perhaps too strong a rejection of reality for even Trump to claim any effort to reduce it. And I'm sure you're going to talk about how both are likely to increase it, but it may not be a problem, at least during the next 4 years.
The deficit goes down when the president is a Democrat, but Congress is Republican, so if we can somehow engineer a situation where that’s the case for about the next 25 years, we should be fine.
@@allthenewsordeath5772 Why do people act like deficits are terrible? They're perfectly natural and healthy. In fact, the government running surpluses would be disastrous to the economy, because deficits are a net transfer of wealth away from the government and to the private sector. This is why every depression in US history has occurred after a period of deficit reduction
@@grimaffiliations3671 Actually, if you wanna keep money in the private sector, you should cut taxes as well as spending, taking the money out of the private sector and spending it on bureaucrats is kind of a waste.
The problem with the construction restricting consecutive presidential terms is you get this oscillating effect between red and blue and nothing gets done.
Kamala Harris is young and she still talks like she just escaped mental asylum. Like come one there are millions of better man and woman that can take the position. Why them?😂😢
@@AwesomeHairoHe’s making mistakes like this CONSTANTLY these days is the issue! It’s no contest now that his competitor is actually younger than retirement age.
The ad before this video was a senate candidate promising to get spending under control, so I’m not sure the concern has gone away, they just don’t explicitly name the deficit and prefer analogies to a household or business budget
The only time the politicians care about the deficit is when it comes to helping the average American. “We can’t give you that, you plebes. Think of the deficit, would you?”
They can do this without fear of the US dollar losing value is because the USD is still the world's main reserve currency so there will always be demand of the US dollar around the world. That's one of the main perks of being the reserve currency. You can have more leeway with deficit spending since there will always be people who want it.
The dollar will still decline in value due to inflation, and the higher your debt, the higher the inflation pressure. Debt is essentially money printing, and credit is now flooding the economy as interest payments, which drive more debt to service.
than by that logic wouldn't privately sector or people borrowing cause inflation after all the government isn't the one buying diapers and groceries. Inflation is really a complex phenomenon with many causes most of which have very little to do with borrowing or the money supply for example there are many instances of government in a surplus fiscal year but there is still inflation for that year how can that be?
Government borrowing doesn't atomically increase inflation that's just a false premise if that was true than using my credit card would increase inflation but when I walk into the store the price never changes, I wonder why?
When the party of the "Fiscally conservative" politicians are increasing the deficit more than the democrats. Happy that I don't have to deal with the US p8litics But in Sweden we are running a deficit and at the same time cutting taxes on air travel and petrol/diesel... 😢
Sweden is not running a large deficit tho? Our ”Financial framwork” is still a bipartisan agreement between all 8 parties promising to encourage deficit and surplus being switched between budget periods. We can thank Göran Persson, Bosse Ringholm, Pär Nuder, Anders Borg, Magdalena Andersson and Elisabeth Svantesson for actually not jeopardising the finanical stability of Sweden despite having vastly different policy agendas. Swedens economy is getting stronger now that the government has pushed down inflation and interest-rates. The opposition would’ve done the same, thankfully. Now is the time for investments and infrastructure reforms to get economic growth up. THAT is a problem for Sweden that is currently the foremost challange for both the ruling Moderate party and the leading opposition-party, the Social democrats. Mikael Damberg and Elisabeth Svantesson has it under control❤️
It's so stupid. The petrol/diesel tax cut is predicted to save people 150 SEK per year on average if I remember right. That's like 13 Euros. About an hour of work. It's not going to make a serious difference for anyone, especially not for those who would need that money the most, i.e. those who can't even afford a car.
The debt is being paid for via inflation, it makes everything more expensive including housing, medical care, food, and energy as more dollars are printed making the previous printed dollars less valuable.
In democracies politicians are a reflection of their people. You saw the video. Reducing the deficit is not seen as a top priority by American citizens. They want their politicians to focus on other stuff and that's what they're doing. Blaming it all on politicians for being short sighted is the equivalent of kicking the can down the road. The people are the ones who vote for them so they're the ones you need to convince there needs to be a change.
@@AnimalBlundetto-12 Nothing short sighted about people believing that deficit reduction is not necessary. It isn't. Europe has been focused on cutting their deficits for the past decade and it has caused nothing but stagnation. Government deficits are good for the private sector
@@AnimalBlundetto-12 thank you. its so tiresome to hear everyday people say this bs relinquishing ALL responsibility for their voting or not voting habits. in anchient athens they were called "1d1ots".
That's how all empires end. They will only act when it's too late, when the problem has spread throughout society and finally into thier gated communities
@@grimaffiliations3671 For the time being I agree that the budget deficit is not an issue for the US. As long as the dollar remains the world's currency reserve the US will be fine. That being said there will be a point where an administration will have to tackle the issue. The interest rates are alright to manage now, but they will become excessive if administrations continue to borrow at rates like Trump's.
Nominal GDP tends to grow between 4 and 10% a year, so it's possible to lower the debt to GDP ratio quite rapidly while running a small deficit. By the way, a part of the debt is held by the central bank (5 trillion according to FRED), meaning the interest paid on it cycles back into the budget. Interest dues on US debt are currently _low_ by historical standards. And all of this is in the context of borring in a currency that the US itself owns and can print. Even in the worst case, a bit of inflation is the only detrimental end result.
Being unpopular for being g fiscally responsible is one of the downsides of democracy, the political parties are incentivised to spend the only think short term
There private sector is just monstrous, they have apple, Microsoft all these behemoths that are worth trillions. You think they’ll suddenly topple. It’s delusional
If a regular country won't pay its debt, its in trouble. When US won't pay its debt, the world is in trouble. As long as US is the global military and economic hegemon the debt is close to meaningless.
@@ryandanngetich2524 Lol, you don't understand how the system works. Everyone is too relying on the us and dollar. The US can't go bankrupt unless everyone stops believing in the US ability to pay their bills
Do they? If it's no problem to simply print more dollars, why don't they? Why has the debt to GDP risen so much when they could have just printed more money?
@@yahnah9116THAT IS NOT THE ANSWER!!! Literally the most CAPTIALIST thing anyone could say. Literally cut the $1 Trillion Military budget, and increase freaking taxes on the wealthiest Americans. LITERALLY THE ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@SnabbKassaThis is false equalency. Trickle down is reffered to as “Money should trickle down into the ecoonomy through higher wages” but you know companies don’t like to pay their fair share either through taxation nor giving better wages.
I know this is largely possible due to the US dollar being the world's reserve currency, but it really shows how unfair the system is for every other nation, even countries like France, who are sounding the alarm bells with smaller deficits
That and (at least so far) the US economy has shown that it can grow consistently, thereby maintaining the balance between the supply of money and the resources that money is chasing.
Presidents don't cut budgets, Congress does. This is especially true for your point about Clinton. It was a Republican congress that ran a surplus - hence why they take credit for it. Seriously, if you guys are going to do content on the USA, at least try to understand how the government works.
Wow, that was incorrect. The budget was a Clinton idea, he proposed it, it passed congress despite fierce republican opposition, you aren’t a nerd, you’re just uninformed. A president is allowed to submit budgets, congress has the ultimate authority tho.
Subscribed to nebula just to watch TlDr's What To Follow USA series. But there's literally only 2 videos. And nothing for more than a week. 😢 Didn't expect this let down.
We certainly were not, lol. It was only a slight budget surplus, it wouldn't have paid off the entire debt within a decade. But I'd much rather the US be $5T in debt right now than the $34T or whatever it is now.
-Remove current tax system, add a sales tax on all purchases, TBD this ensures everyone is taxed not just the poors. -End Social security over the next 20 years, pay out to the ones at end of life and ramp down on taking in new payments from the younger generation. -Privatize health, watch insurance rates and hospital and medical pricing free fall and be competitive. -Privatize education, end the FASFA program. College tuition will drop like a rock. Encourage private lending. Watch how fast worthless credits disappear from degrees. Fixd.
You must be crazy! US healthcare is already the worst in the "developed" world, yet you want it to all go private which means health becomes a game of who is going to win or lose....
Fun fact: it’s predicted the transition to 100% renewable energy, even with current tech, would save us nearly $1tn annually due to how much we spend subsidizing fossil fuel energy compared to what we would need to spend subsidizing renewable energies in the US.
To be fair to this video, a higher ratio of "deficit" to GDP can increase inflation. One of the main takeaways from this book, which follows MMT, is that exactly.
mathematically speaking it can't unless congress willfully doesn't raise the arbitrary "debt ceiling" its like asking will donuts eventually run out of holes haha .
It depends. Given the US dolar is the most used currency, a US debt crisss would likely cause inflation everywhere over the world. Anywhere else it would just end up as a recession.
Look Brazil, like one from there I saw in 2015 a larger print money, inflation with a high real interest rate, unempoyment and low consumption. It's terrible, it's like a low cosumption with stagnation of Japan + records of inflation, the cicle of interest simply turned upside down.
In the current era of fiat money; debt, deficit or budget gaps doesn't mean much for a state - as long as international trade still is honoured (i.e. countries still do business with you). The 'economic indicators' have meaning only when the trust is to be established; from then on, you're free to do whatever. When you print the money that other countries make their deals with; you get a 'get out of jail free card' in anyway.
@@ilhamrj2599 yes this implies to all other nation not US because dollars is world reserve currency and demand is very high in international market more than 70% world trade happen through dollars. Oil trade happen through dollars petro dollars is very strong 🛢💪
@@grimaffiliations3671 true... but still money-printing should be followed by increasing productivity thus increasing government revenue by taxation... When it doesnt happen, you know what comes next... it is the inflation. So it might not be directly inherently related... but one thing does lead to another. Money-printing makes inflation more likely.
@@ilhamrj2599 Printing money creates enough demand for the economy to operate at full employment. Full employment leads to an increase in productivity. Also taxation doesn't actually increase government revenue. The government makes the dollar, so they already have an infinite supply of dollars. Taxes on the federal level are simply debited out of existence upon payment, they don't go anywhere. The government makes us pay them to create demand for the currency
I can see where are you coming from, but you are wrong in the sense that money is endless because the Federal Reserve or whatever central bank you have in your country can print as much money as they please. Money doesn’t have any intristical value whatsoever. It has as much value as much money is in the economy. Edit: So to be more understandable, money doesn’t have any value. Try to think of it as a tool to allocate resources or power in the economy.
@@dennisfarris4729 The US can’t run out of money because The Federal Reserve can print as much money as the congress want. The U.S power is backed by the economy itself and their military might. The size and power of the american economy is also is the reason why is the USD is the “worlds” reserve” currency.
@@dennisfarris4729 Well this is a bit contextual, so it’s a both of a yes and no. You have two ways of balancing the budget. It’s either cutting state programs such as social security, subsidies or tax increases. As long as the GDP can prop up the economy and isn’t much lower than the national debt it should be fine tho. The problem starts when the interest rates are too high on the government bonds, and public sector job payments cannot be covered. If that happens then the U.S will be in an interesting situation. My stance is that it shouldn’t be this high, but government programs like the IRA should help exactly with that. It’ll just take a few years.
Mathematically speaking if the us debt was paid off and securities matured without new ones issued the money supply would literally go to ZERO because on the federal reserve balance sheet assets = liabilities, because money is only created when the federal reserve purchases and asset and what they can purchase is limited by the federal reserve act. Essentially this obsession with paying off the debt is just a conservative "pull yourself up by the bootstrap" bias that doesn't coincide with reality.
Correct, you shouldn’t strive to pay off the entirety of a nation’s debt. That being said, incurring too much debt would result in a ridiculously high interest payment that would consequently mean the nation is unable to even pay it’s running cost (you know maintenance).
You have made a mistake when talking about how much Kamala Harris and Trump plan to increase the deficit which is adding the forecasted cost of policies over a whole term onto the yearly fiscal deficit.
The politician are s0ending money like Americans themselves are spending. When voters themselves are financially irresponsible, of course they elect politicians who are also.
Because the government is keynesian. Because managing macroeconomy is different from managing a household budget. The Federal Reserve can easily print money and as long as productivity also grows, inflation is not a problem. What happened in the rest of the world is not the concern of the US government.
Keynesian economics suggests that at a time of high GDP growth, like the US is actually in now, it is best to reduce government spending, so you can increase it again in times of economic downturn. Right now that isn't happening.
@@dylanschulz9118 have they actually done that ever? Seems like the US is just doing Italian politics of the 90's. Unlimited spending no accountability and in the end it will lead to only stagnation
7:10 *Both Economists can be correct but in 2 different scenarios: if the US continues being the global reserve currency, the one on the right would be correct; if the opposite is true, the one on the left would be correct.*
The debt is an issue that will never be solved by any politician if we are being honest, the people who run America have gotten to arrogant after the collapse of the Soviet Union and thought that the "end of history" had begun when in actuality one period of history ended and another period began. The truth is, is that no nation can be number one forever, however people have seen to have forgotten that, this is why any collapse of America will be more violent than people think because the people who run the country would likely be ok with massive amounts of Americans dying as long as it didn't affect them or cause them to lose power. Looking at the streets of major cities in American you will see countless amounts of homeless people suffering and people on fentanyl, yet the politicians will do little about it because it doesn't affect them. I've heard people compare the United States to Rome but I feel like it would be more accurate to compare the United States to the Ottoman Empire, a great Empire that in its prime was the main power of the world, but as time went on an Empire that slowey decayed and lost territory became its leaders were too busy enjoying their harems to care. No politician can save you to be honest and if you want a savior I would suggest you read the Bible and ask Jesus to save you, but in the meantime I suggest you do everything you can to protect your family and make sure their taken care of first, because lets be honest, if things go south the politicians already have an escape plan. I really hope America doesn't collapse considering the fact that countless Americans like me have a life here, but with American politicians not learning anything from history and thinking America is "to big to fail" we must always keep our guard up.
America is only collapsing because it isn't close to democratic and the people that are "voted in" do not care about its citizens. They copied early France but never allowed for revolutions to happen. Comparing to Rome would indeed be inaccurate.
The thing that most people don't get about governmental debt is that it's not like personal debt. The money doesn't just "disappear" into a bank vault. The US government is essentially giving it's investors (bond holders) a stable return on investment. The people use US debt as a source of income from their capital, an alternative to riskier bets like the stockmarket. Having no debt would actually be a major problem, as the economy needs safe investment options. Yes, it is a wealth transfer from tax payers to bond holders, but most of those bond holders are retirees and wealth management firms. It's not like those interest payments vanish, the money does go back into circulation, and even taxed again eventually. The point is, a healthy amount of debt is actually a good thing. That being said, when Trump added $7.8 trillion debt over his 4 years in office, it has become a bit of a problem because eventually the interest payments could become more than the government can handle, which would result in people no longer wanting to buy bonds. The reason neighter politician wants to talk about it is because Trump knows he'll just get hammered on his own contribution to the debt, and Kamila knows she'll just get hammered on her own policies suggestions, so why would either of them bring it up?
The real reason is mention at 7:22 ie the dollar being the world reserve currency (mainly due to Bretton Woods in 1944), america can print money like there is no tomorrow. The moment the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the US will collapse due to its addition to debit. This is not an impossibility, china and some other countries (eg the BRICS) are already working on this. However it is not likely to happen in the near future.
There were previous 'enduring reserve currencies.' They got collapsed under their own weight. As it is, I'd say that while advances in technology have increased the overall numbers, the actual percentages of the involved forces did not change all that much.
To be fair, the US dollar is the world reserve currency which means they can literally print endless amounts of money. All the handwringing about deficits is just performative at this point..
Politicians only care about the deficit when out of power and want a cudgel against the spendthrifts currently in office. Once in office, they inevitably find it much easier to borrow and/or print cash because most voters like spending (at least when it benefits them) and few are fond of taxes. They won't be in office anymore when the bills come due anyhow.
The left has no idea what they’re talking about. The left is evil and the right is righteous. It’s always funny that the evil people see itself as the good guys. Stalin also thought he was good.
And yet his economic policy is still better than Harris. That's not saying much since his answer to everything us just "mUh....ťAŕřìfFs" but at the very least he's trying to attack inflation at its core. Though it is very unsustainable and heavily depends on Chinese tarrifs which is a very short term solution seeing China is turning way from US trade. Harris however 😂😂😂😂😂, oh goodness where do I begin ?. You can't just give people money to lower costs of food since that will obviously not last for ever without a drastic increase in Americas output. Not to mention price gouging (AKA: Price controls if we're being honest) has failed nearly every place it's been implemented.
alleged billionaire who lost millions given to him by his father and has declared bankruptcy multiple times whilst having numerous companies and ventures go insolvent... Some of us just like to focus on doing what we can with what we have rather than feel like we're entitled to everybody else's slice of the pie
@@nightprowler6336 Among all the great minds of human history none was a billionaire or impressively wealthy so there’s no correlation between wealth and intelligence especially when people are born rich. Trump didn’t invent anything or created a profitable business he just put the 400 million he got from his father in real estate. Basically he made his money like most American boomers only he had 400 million to invest rather than a mortgage on 100k house which is now worth a million.
They never did, and for good reason. Deficits are nothing more than net financial transfers of wealth away from the government and to the private sector. This is good for the economy
It appears to be the case that Fiscal Surplus forces private industry to deleverage by quite literally deleting money out of the system. This forces private industry to enter a deficit - leading to a recession, which if you're the government, the only solution is to start the fiscal deficit again, or face a downward spiral of deflation, further deleveraging in the private industry and entering a depression (which is exactly what happened at the start of the great depression before they got wise and started spending money again). The literal only cost to more stimulus spending is the inflation that can and likely will occur (because who can perfectly plan spending in under-resourced industries / sectors). And the interest being paid on debt is just another form of stimulus, albeit poorly distributed to mostly already rich people.
So basically the strategy of each party is "double it and give it to the next person"?
😂
Basically the plan for the last 30+ years. Once it’s handed off to the other party you complain about why it’s so high then promptly ignore it once you’re back in power.
I want to cry. For real.
Hot potato
Simply put, but accurate.
Politicians don't care about the deficit because the US electorate does not reward politicians or parties that reduce it.
fair enough lol
I think we failed to properly frame the political attitude behind reducing fiscal deficit. It is never intended for current growth, it is intended for security of the generations to come, with the needs of the aging population in mind.
@@ad_astra468 Obama got a second term through thanks to being the most charismatic US politician since Roosevelt. I highly doubt the deficit had much to do with it.
Why would the US electorate reward politicians for taking money out of their pocket? A deficit is a net transfer of wealth away from the government and to the private sector
Good point.
"The national debt is nearing italian levels"
When "italian" is the top tier in the debt tier list. 😂
ITALIA NUMERRROO UUUUNNOOO 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹
Greece is no.1 as a percentage
@KGDGHMF The U.S in 3 years if Trump (aka Mussolini Americano ☕️, aka Clementine Caligula) gets re elected: “Hold our beer”
Nah, there's definitely a lot more tiers above Italy haha
Well at least it's not the Greek tier yet lol
Saying “yeah, our budget is doing shit so we’ll be doing cuts” isn’t something that is gonna win many votes
and it isn't even the right thing to do. Running a deficit is natural
@@grimaffiliations3671stealing more money from future generations to supply our own greed now shouldn’t ever be considered natural or normal
I seen these one before lol there alway a but "we really needed these cool thing and it going to the budget". The Republican are alway the one that bring up debt ceiling but they have no leg to stand on that topic , cause they last time they hold power on both Congress, Senate, and White House they create space force, wage a trade war with all USA trade partners and create a new tax code all of which increase the spending like crazy.
@@sirsurnamethefirstofhisnam7986 let me explain.
The US practically cannot pay off their debt and the deficit is crazy high so what do we do?
Borrow more money, improve the economy, de value the dollar since it's a fixed value, incentivise production from companies by lowering investment tax,
Demand📈
Production📈
Production attracts investors
Demand increases production
Increase demand by lowering investment tax and lowering interest rates to increase demand and borrowing
Borrowing=incentivises investment
This was shown when Japan barely had any people borrowing and so there are offshore investors who use the yen with a really low interest rate use it to invest on something they get big returns and pay off the loan and interest and get the rest, one of the less risky investment is the US Treasury bond.
@@grimaffiliations3671 who's gonna pay it back? we could default on our debts if we don't cut some public spending, go into a painful few years, before coming out better than before.
Still waiting for the takeover of "Octavia" that the Onion proclaimed all those years ago 😅🤷🏻♀️
Seems the most sensible idea either partie has, to combat the debt 🙈
Yassssss😂😂😂 omgggg
"Someone save a record of our debts"
Its all fun and games til the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture starts a coup
I came here to mention that lol not the worst idea
@@jairosoto2740 (dies)
Voters care about the idea of reducing the deficit, but as soon as you propose a specific way to do it (cut a program/spending, raise a tax), people always say it's not worth it. Can't way to deal with the consequences of this spending as I get older!
I would bet that most voters want to do those things, you just can't get them to agree to which ones
@@iambicpentakill971 the rich want budget cuts the poor want taxes raised on the rich, both want tax cuts for themselves.
@speedy01247 the rich already pay the majority of tax.. if you want to stop deficit. Then take care of Curruption at many levels of government
California has this issue on steroids.. millions for a toilet, millions for homes for migrants and not Americans, not to mention the social services that need tones of money but have no results
You want to stop bleeding money? Institute goals for all those programs and gov offices.. and if they are not performing with aloted money, a criminal investigation should take place
Cut budgets at a minimum 10% across the board. No reason government spending increases should exceed the rate of inflation.
@@jeffmiesen Oh, there are reasons. E.g. If infrastructure wasn't maintained properly due to chronic underfunding, and then we finally decide to replace/repair it, that cost will spike the spending numbers for that year. Really, the maintenance spending was artificially low in prior years, which makes the denominator low, which makes the percent increase look even higher on paper.
A lot of polticians won't be alive when shit hits the fan
True, but blame the voters. Clinton put the US in a great fiscal place by actually balancing the budget, and voters immediately voted in Republicans who promptly wrecked the defecit with unfunded tax cuts. Voters told politicians they want free money (with free meaning that future generations have to pay for it).
Well that's hard to say, it can happen tomorrow and it can happen in 300 years, we dont know
It won't cause why would it?
What entity will punish the US for it? The US owns it's own debt and it's in dollars which the government has an infinite supply of. With Greece they were dependent on the ECB and the ECB and EU in general really screwed them over badly. They didn't have to do this, they choose to do this to punish Greece and set an example.
The US government doesn't lease the territory of the US, it has sovereignty over it. "Debt" is entirely fictitious, it comes from the power of the one you owe debt too and what they decide to do. The federal reserve can't dictate to the house or the president that they need to cut spending the way the ECB can. If they were to try then the head will just be replaced.
We have ~120% of GDP as debt that's not much look at Japan they pay ridiculously low interest with 250%
@@starscream6657 It definitely won't happen tomorrow, or in a year, or five years. Maybe one day the US will reach a point when they go bankrupt, but that usually does not happen the before 180% debt to GDP, depending on the interest on the borrowed money.
this whole US debt thing feels like a massive bubble thats always on the brink of popping.
As long as US is the global military and economic hegemon, only domestic debt really matters and international debt is close to meaningless. US holds the leverage over the rest of the world not the other way around, and China has no way of making US pay.
@@MVargictechnically the world (or at least Russia, China and their allies) could threaten an embargo or even military actions if the US don’t pay. It’s unlikely for now, but it could happen a decade from now
@@whitezombie10 Even trying to go about it that way would almost certainly cause far more harm than whatever amount of money they might get out of the USA by attempting that. And on the note of military actions... yeah that's not happening this century unless the US Military suddenly falls off super fucking hard.
At this point the US has almost well and truly reached the latter half of the "If you owe the bank 100 dollars that's your problem, if you owe the bank 100 million dollars that is the Banks problem" quote.
@@whitezombie10 US navy and air power are stronger and more numerous than the entire world outside of NATO combined, and a more technologically advanced too. Russia is a failing petrostate burning through its military reserves and China is on the precipice of the mother of all demographic collapses. As long as US doesnt defund its military it will always hold the high ground
I don't think so. Unlike bitcoin the US currency is grounded by the US economy and the US empire. US businesses HAVE to accept US dollars and US citizens HAVE to pay their taxes in US dollars. So the power of the US means the bubble can't burst.
The only way the US currency can become worthless is if the government becomes too weak to enforce the use of it's currency (like happened in Weimar Germany).
Probably because it won't help their campaigns???
Tax cuts- ok
Budget(beneficial policies) cuts- not ok
Talking about her intentions with gaza didn't help her campaign either. She might as well play the brutally honest politician. Might not be very likeable but it's much preferred to Trump who spews out lies at every chance he gets.
@@vinny4765 "but it's much preferred" No it isn't. Promising a harsh reality compared to promising an unfeasible fantasy will get absolutely no one energized to vote for you. Political elections are at their core popularity contests, Debbie downer is not popular.
@vinny4765 She was brutally honest when she accused Joe Biden of being a segregationist back in democrat presidential debate in 2020, said that she was a victim of segregation, sold t shirts over the fact that she was a victim, and pretended that she never ever said that when Joe Biden nominated her as the VP.
And what about prosecuting black families for smoking weed, yet admitting on camera that she smoked weed at a podcast back in 2020?
She can't even do a basic interview as a presidential candidate (which she rarely does) without Walz being her emotional support dog. Yet this women is running for the most powerful positions in the world. 🤡
Just sayin 🫤
The us is the only country who is literally too stupid to care if they go bankrupt or not
They won't talk about it because they know a deficit reduction would de-stimulate our domestic consumption based economy.
Isn't a lot of individual consumption in the USA also on borrowed money, using credit card debt?
@@petrairene yeah I'd say most are. I often think our "amazing economy" that economists lavish is mostly driven by the bad financial decisions of our citizens and poor financial education.
There's endless content online of Americans talking about their crazy debts/interest payments. A lot of it reminds me of my parents circa 2007
If this issue isn't tackled in the next few decades, the speed of the world de- dollarization will only increase. Less than 20 years ago euro payments weren't acceptable in Turkey, nowadays dollars payments aren't. Many exporters to Europe are transitioning the same way. Bosnia and Herzegovina like some latin central america statets has transitioned to their local economical giant's currency(sometimes without legally abandoning their own currency). Many EU applicants or trade partners with questionable expertise in central bank and political system management are toying with following BiH's lead. Africa and mainly India and China in Asia will decide the speed of de- dollarization.
Once the dollars isn't world currency any printing of new banknotes to pay old debts will decrease the vallue of the dollar, throwing USA in inflation cycle, which in turn increases the interest rate of the debt and therefore increase the debt payments.
@@БориславВълков-м7р India has accepted bi-lateral trade in regional currencies since, basically, independence. It's just that nobody actually wants to deal in rupee-denominated deposits.
Russia uses its ruble accounts for trade there, for example, as does Australia in AUD-denominated accounts. The issue they have is purchasing things (like oil) using rupees or other foreign currency they have hold of... and those trade partners want USD still.
It destimulated the economy even when the US was manufacturing stuff. Every depression in US history has come after a period of deficit reduction
"One of the weird things about this presidential elections is the lack of any serious discussion a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶d̶g̶e̶t̶".
I stopped following the election a couple of weeks ago. American elections are bonkers. Anyone who knows anything about politics has already made their minds up.
As long as you forget about all that peaceful transfer of power stuff...
You’re weird.
Unfortunately the political strategy this election cycle is focused on Trump
Trump wants to win, some saying that he will implement Project 2024 and pardon himself of all past convictions if he wins
Harris wanting to stop Trump from winning to make sure Project 2024 isn’t implemented and Trump doesn’t pardon himself
We have one side who suddenly very much cares about the deficit only when the other is in power but explodes the deficit with tax cuts whenever they are in power.
Exactly. If we wanted to prioritize the shrinking of the deficit, we should have rewarded the Democrats with further victories after Bill Clinton left office. But nah, Republicans stole that election because we didn't give Dems the bigger margin of victory they deserved, so now here we are
Money printer goes brrr....
I can't stop chuckling at this one 😂😂👏👏
Keep voting for GOP, don't be surprised when y win stoop ID prizes.
A flat tax for everyone that has the added bonus of scaring off forgien investment. If they lose World reserve currency status its gonna get real bad for america real quick
Inflation: 📈📈📈📈📈📈
@@kronos7110 I ain't republican. I am not American.
The American economy just realized it has the Konami Code. 🤣
Not 'just' realised. It has know this since Bretton Woods.
Money printer go brrrr
When you basically are the center of the global economy you can basically do whatever.
@@ChineseKiwi elements of the american economy knew this but it certinatly hadnt sunk into the minds of Politicians or voters until recently
A lot of it is because politicians have failed to communicate why the deficit is a problem for ordinary people (Namely, that more tax money goes toward paying the interest than on defence, let alone public services) and so voters stopped caring.
Well i think we all know US defense spending, which is the highest in the world, hasnt exactly been put to good use these last several decades
@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rpand when we pull back the world burns
Or the deficit is reduced, then the next president creates a new deficit and gets sung praises for it
Looking at you, Republicans.
@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp Yes, very unprepared for Russia invading Ukraine. Can't manufacture nearly enough artillery shells, for example.
@@dannylive3000 try it then, please
America pays ~15% of its government revenue on interest.
If it ever went up past 50% that would be insane and then we should start worrying. The reason no one cares about the debt is because people always focused on the wrong metric (debt to gdp) when they should have been focused on how much government revenue goes into paying annual debt service.
America can effortlessly print 15% of its government budget with a click. As long as it doesn't cause too rapid inflation the amount of money spent on interest doesn't matter by itself. The bulk of recent inflation, especially food, was caused by monopolistic price gouging by corporations after most of their small business competitors were destroyed from covid lockdown, as well as mass buyouts of housing and intentional constriction of supply by predatory wall street and the elite owner class, fortunately inflation rates have now decreased back to normal old levels , despite of the all time high debt.
@MVargic
When people say 'print money to pay debt,' they're basically describing a process where the Treasury issues bonds, which are then bought by Wall Street traders and sold to the Federal Reserve. This process doesn't actually 'print' new money, but rather more borrowing to pay off debt service payments. The concern is that if the government relies too heavily on this process, it's essentially borrowing to pay off debt, which can lead to a default if investors lose confidence and stop buying Treasury bonds. Currently, interest payments account for 15% of government revenue, which is the highest it has been in a long time and it is manageable, but a significantly higher percentage (like 50%) could erode investor confidence and lead to serious issues... like investors not buying bonds.... this isn't Zimbabwe, the federal reserve by law can't directly buy US Treasury bonds. If investors don't want to buy anymore then that is the limiting factor. "Printing money" which is "issuing bonds" only happens because investors buy our bonds.
that's pretty cheap if you think about only 15 percent and look at where it was spent also remember the rock-bottom interest ratees from 2008-2015 good times.
Debt-to-GDP is the pretty standard metric internationally, as far as I'm aware. The logic being it correlates with the tax rate which would be necessary to pay off the debt.
The problem is these are the interest from 15+ years ago that reached their payment deadline so they had to be paid so in 15 or something like that years a big part of today's dept will have to be paid the problem isn't right now the problem is that noone is fixing the issue and just making it worse with no end in sight.
The debate should be about how we spend the money. A government deficit is a private sector surplus.
Fun fact: January of 1835 was the last time the US was Debt free.
Fun fact: that was followed by a huge depression that lasted for 3 years. Paying off debt entirely is destimulating, not stimulating.
@@user-iy3gx9qg4yyes, a recession was created by the private banking sector to allow them the right to credit creation. To help "save" the country from a problem they created.
@@user-iy3gx9qg4ywas paying off previous debts the CAUSE of the recession though?
@@sirsurnamethefirstofhisnam7986 No 😂
The real reason is mention at 7:22 ie the dollar being the world reserve currency (mainly due to Bretton Woods in 1944), america can print money like there is no tomorrow. The moment the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the US will collapse due to its addition to debit. This is not an impossibility, china and some other countries (eg the BRICS) are already working on this. However it is not likely to happen in the near future.
Too big to fail, if they did fall they everyone is going down with them.
Plus, that all are thinking "Just kick the can down the road, won't be my problem"
The "conservative" party has always had a higher deficit on average over the past 40 years.
There isn't a "conservative" and a "liberal" party, only candidates which represent different factions of the party, clinton had more in common with trump than either obama and biden while bush jr was more similar to obama than anything
@@kostas0352thats a lie, Clinton’s a neoliberal like Obama , 100% a democrat. Trump is a his own thing.
Stop thinking in the left /right paradigm. The 'conservatives' are no more for reducing the debt than the 'Liberals' are for reducing corporate monopolies.
And over the same period the economy has done better under Democratic presidents than under Republicans.
Vote blue 🌊🌊
@@That-Guy_ every time the US had a recession it had democrat controlled House and senate 🤣
Real ones know that's a reupload
know*
@@user-ex6xc5ox3kkonw*
🤓
Enjoyed this. Very interesting! As US citizen, I can confirm that people used to talk about the debt in handwringing fashion, and now don’t seem to talk about it at all
4:59 I think only Americans can understand the phobia most Americans have against taxes.
It is absolutely imposible to have a reasonable conversation (let alone discussion) about taxes with these people.
It's like trying to convince a German that their bread is not undisputably the best bread in the world.
Being German, that was a great analogy!
I am American and have been living in Europe 6+ years... And you are spot on. Also about the metric system.
I wish more politicians would focus their plans on _efficient_ bills, like limiting speculative real estate, rather than just wildly tossing money at their problems and hoping they go away.
I don't think that's the reason, the reason it's that people don't want the pain of cutting spending or hiking taxes.
Reducing public spending reduces private sector earning by exactly the same amount
@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp no, cause cutting spending causes "crowd in". You must be some far left, Google my name
America is doomed then
That’s literally what they said
No, the real reason is one of narrative. Republicans have always been the ones to push the narrative that democrats spend too much on welfare. However the reality is that with both Reagan and Bush they massively blew up the debt however both times it was swept under the rug. This time though democrats didn't let that happen and they kept reminding people that it was Trump who blew up the debt and spend 3 times more than Biden did.
The "debt" has never been a good faith argument cause for a country that dominates finance it is pretty much irrelevant to begin with. The US spends over 5 times more on fossil fuel subsidies than it does on green energy but you never hear calls to cut those subsidies and allow fuel prices to triple. Megacorps like Amazon and Netflix haven't paid any taxes in a long time cause they have the power to choose not to.
You should do a video on MMT and what different economic schools think of it.
Exactly, they are just reapeting a conservative talking point that has no relation to how money works today, but the reality of money might be to abstract for many.,
Any economist who thinks you can just print money to get rid of debt needs to be put on a blacklist. Hubris.
@@the11382 The deficit is simply the difference between the amount of new money injected into the economy by govt spending and that which is taxed back. It doesn’t need to be repaid, and shouldn’t, unless you want to suck all the money out of the non govt sectors
The core reason is far simpler: American voters would rather have a tax cut, or a spending program, than a reduced deficit.
This is a democracy, and the voters decide. Politicians who campaign on reducing the deficit consistently lose to those who campaign on cutting taxes or spending on programs.
People here only care about the deficit when the other party is in power.
Our taxes should be not trusted with the government. That's the problem.
No it’s because the government has become a joke. Politicians only care about power and do things to retain power which hurt all of America at later date.
Both candidates spend a lot of money to appease their followers and then in a few dozen years we will suffer a Great Depression from this debt crisis.
I personally don't see deficits to be problem there great for the economy and help the citizens manage their debt as in like credit card, mortgage etc. Without deficits there would be a lot of economic strife and bifurcation of society into "haves" and "have nots"
@@AwesomeHairo Are you in favor of eradicating the government?
Japan has over 200% debt to gdp last 3 decades nothing happened. It's just number as long has investor has faith in the USA economy. Don't forget USA is still cleanest of all advanced economy countries.
it’s not really 200% because Japan owes most of it to itself
@@SnabbKassa so as the USA our no 1 debtor is Federal Reserve itself. We are leaving in corrupt Ponzi scheme society which are designed to help elite. Government always doesn't address the root cause finds the way to kick the can down the road.
"Nothing happened". Yeh just been in a recession half the time and only just recovered to 1990s level.
Just a fwi. If that default. The people will have to pay it. It's 78k to 104k per person. Now yes they can keep raising the debt limit. But Venezuela did that and... 1 usd is 100000k dollars there
Venezuela is fundamentally different as they were relying on a currency the government did not create (Us-dollars). How should the us go bankrupt in us-dollars if they are the only entitiy able to create it?
Gotta love the era of "too big to fail" It's like all money is backed by fear.
the cold hard truth, is that any monetarily sovereign government could pay off it's debt at anytime.
Yeah, Just print 30+ trillion dollars and solve the problem
Got to prepare for that wartime economy boom baby
I have been Staying this for awhile:Both Democrats and Republicans are not Serious about US Debt,This coming from a Christian Republican!Great Educational Video!❤
Thank you for the video. Good explanation without too much fluff.
The deficit has almost never been a Democratic talking point, despite them being the 'best' on it since it almost always goes down during modern Democratic presidencies and up during Republican presidencies. It's also perhaps too strong a rejection of reality for even Trump to claim any effort to reduce it. And I'm sure you're going to talk about how both are likely to increase it, but it may not be a problem, at least during the next 4 years.
The deficit goes down when the president is a Democrat, but Congress is Republican, so if we can somehow engineer a situation where that’s the case for about the next 25 years, we should be fine.
@@allthenewsordeath5772 Why do people act like deficits are terrible? They're perfectly natural and healthy. In fact, the government running surpluses would be disastrous to the economy, because deficits are a net transfer of wealth away from the government and to the private sector. This is why every depression in US history has occurred after a period of deficit reduction
@@grimaffiliations3671
Actually, if you wanna keep money in the private sector, you should cut taxes as well as spending, taking the money out of the private sector and spending it on bureaucrats is kind of a waste.
The problem with the construction restricting consecutive presidential terms is you get this oscillating effect between red and blue and nothing gets done.
That's not the issue, many countries are more politically volatile than the US but get things done easier.
0:53 Bro he is senile too 😭😭😭
Maybe we shouldn't have retirees as president
Kamala Harris is young and she still talks like she just escaped mental asylum. Like come one there are millions of better man and woman that can take the position. Why them?😂😢
It was an honest mistake.
@@AwesomeHairoHe’s making mistakes like this CONSTANTLY these days is the issue!
It’s no contest now that his competitor is actually younger than retirement age.
Why did you vote them in? It's the american voter's fault
The ad before this video was a senate candidate promising to get spending under control, so I’m not sure the concern has gone away, they just don’t explicitly name the deficit and prefer analogies to a household or business budget
They finally realised that money is fake
only took them about a century smh
yeah money isn't a resource, its a resource allocation tool
No - just an agreed way to do transactions.
You thought they would've been the first to notice since Nixon got rid of the gold standard.
🤡
Can you put the source in the description please
The only time the politicians care about the deficit is when it comes to helping the average American.
“We can’t give you that, you plebes. Think of the deficit, would you?”
I’ve read this in the of an opinionatef voice of a british aristocrat in my head and somehow fits perfectly.
Who the fuck do they pay? The Deceptacons?
The banks
other countries like Japan. There are also pension funds
@@priestofronaldaltSo the deceptacons basically
Bond holders mostly, and those can be owned by anyone
Private people,countries,banks,financial institutions ect
They can do this without fear of the US dollar losing value is because the USD is still the world's main reserve currency so there will always be demand of the US dollar around the world.
That's one of the main perks of being the reserve currency. You can have more leeway with deficit spending since there will always be people who want it.
The dollar will still decline in value due to inflation, and the higher your debt, the higher the inflation pressure. Debt is essentially money printing, and credit is now flooding the economy as interest payments, which drive more debt to service.
If US gets in trouble its the rest of the world that will have to pay for it.
Inversly, being the world reserve currency means that you need to run a overall trade deficit since everyone wants your money.
I don't think Trump is confusing the trade deficit with the fiscal deficit. I think he is noting the likelihood that they go hand in hand.
Government borrowing increases inflation. This makes sense, so borrow less to lessen inflation? Not likely in today's fractured political environment.
Spending is only inflationary if the economy's capacity is already fully employed which is mostly never the case.
than by that logic wouldn't privately sector or people borrowing cause inflation after all the government isn't the one buying diapers and groceries. Inflation is really a complex phenomenon with many causes most of which have very little to do with borrowing or the money supply for example there are many instances of government in a surplus fiscal year but there is still inflation for that year how can that be?
But inflation also equals economic growth.
Our precious infinite growth machine simply can’t stop.
@@terrablaze3387 inflation-adjusted real growth exists
Government borrowing doesn't atomically increase inflation that's just a false premise if that was true than using my credit card would increase inflation but when I walk into the store the price never changes, I wonder why?
If I owe you 100 dollars - that's my problem. If I owe you 1 000 000 dollars - that's your problem.
When the party of the "Fiscally conservative" politicians are increasing the deficit more than the democrats. Happy that I don't have to deal with the US p8litics
But in Sweden we are running a deficit and at the same time cutting taxes on air travel and petrol/diesel... 😢
Liberal economic policies only serve some guys....
Sweden is not running a large deficit tho? Our ”Financial framwork” is still a bipartisan agreement between all 8 parties promising to encourage deficit and surplus being switched between budget periods. We can thank Göran Persson, Bosse Ringholm, Pär Nuder, Anders Borg, Magdalena Andersson and Elisabeth Svantesson for actually not jeopardising the finanical stability of Sweden despite having vastly different policy agendas.
Swedens economy is getting stronger now that the government has pushed down inflation and interest-rates. The opposition would’ve done the same, thankfully.
Now is the time for investments and infrastructure reforms to get economic growth up. THAT is a problem for Sweden that is currently the foremost challange for both the ruling Moderate party and the leading opposition-party, the Social democrats. Mikael Damberg and Elisabeth Svantesson has it under control❤️
Historically Republicans have increased the deficit while Democrats have lowered it.
It's so stupid. The petrol/diesel tax cut is predicted to save people 150 SEK per year on average if I remember right. That's like 13 Euros. About an hour of work. It's not going to make a serious difference for anyone, especially not for those who would need that money the most, i.e. those who can't even afford a car.
Saving begins with small gains, just as deficits begin with small purchases@@Newbyte
The debt is being paid for via inflation, it makes everything more expensive including housing, medical care, food, and energy as more dollars are printed making the previous printed dollars less valuable.
This drives me crazy how shortsighted all these politicians are. Until a problem lands right on their doorstep, they will do nothing.
In democracies politicians are a reflection of their people. You saw the video. Reducing the deficit is not seen as a top priority by American citizens. They want their politicians to focus on other stuff and that's what they're doing.
Blaming it all on politicians for being short sighted is the equivalent of kicking the can down the road. The people are the ones who vote for them so they're the ones you need to convince there needs to be a change.
@@AnimalBlundetto-12 Nothing short sighted about people believing that deficit reduction is not necessary. It isn't. Europe has been focused on cutting their deficits for the past decade and it has caused nothing but stagnation. Government deficits are good for the private sector
@@AnimalBlundetto-12 thank you. its so tiresome to hear everyday people say this bs relinquishing ALL responsibility for their voting or not voting habits. in anchient athens they were called "1d1ots".
That's how all empires end. They will only act when it's too late, when the problem has spread throughout society and finally into thier gated communities
@@grimaffiliations3671 For the time being I agree that the budget deficit is not an issue for the US. As long as the dollar remains the world's currency reserve the US will be fine. That being said there will be a point where an administration will have to tackle the issue. The interest rates are alright to manage now, but they will become excessive if administrations continue to borrow at rates like Trump's.
Nominal GDP tends to grow between 4 and 10% a year, so it's possible to lower the debt to GDP ratio quite rapidly while running a small deficit.
By the way, a part of the debt is held by the central bank (5 trillion according to FRED), meaning the interest paid on it cycles back into the budget.
Interest dues on US debt are currently _low_ by historical standards.
And all of this is in the context of borring in a currency that the US itself owns and can print. Even in the worst case, a bit of inflation is the only detrimental end result.
Being unpopular for being g fiscally responsible is one of the downsides of democracy, the political parties are incentivised to spend the only think short term
As long as the US keeps chugging along, posting record gdp growth, it will not be a problem. Everyone is too invested in the US.
There private sector is just monstrous, they have apple, Microsoft all these behemoths that are worth trillions. You think they’ll suddenly topple. It’s delusional
Nope thats just sweeping problems under the rag and or postponing it
If a regular country won't pay its debt, its in trouble. When US won't pay its debt, the world is in trouble. As long as US is the global military and economic hegemon the debt is close to meaningless.
Sooner or later the bill comes due. The bill _always comes due_ . _Always_ .
@@ryandanngetich2524 Lol, you don't understand how the system works. Everyone is too relying on the us and dollar. The US can't go bankrupt unless everyone stops believing in the US ability to pay their bills
0:47
"No, that was about the budget gap. This is the trading gap"
-Marge Simpson
That still doesnt explain why you ate my soap. Wait. Maybe it does...
Basically because they have an actual infinite money glitch
Do they? If it's no problem to simply print more dollars, why don't they? Why has the debt to GDP risen so much when they could have just printed more money?
@@CristanMeijer The ratio is just a number. Why bother printing dollars when the ratio increasing has had so little real-world impact?
Gosh, it’s almost like actually addressing problems would make them politically unpopular so only a candidate with some ginormous balls could do it.
reducing the deficit causes problems, not solutions. All it does is take money out of the private sector, which usually leads to a crash/depression
Nah they only used as an excuse to shutdown the government, but they cannot do anything since maga take over.
@@grimaffiliations3671the solution is simple, abolish medicare medicaid and social security but that wouldnt be popular now would it
@@grimaffiliations3671lmfao
@@yahnah9116THAT IS NOT THE ANSWER!!! Literally the most CAPTIALIST thing anyone could say. Literally cut the $1 Trillion Military budget, and increase freaking taxes on the wealthiest Americans. LITERALLY THE ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Italy catching crazy strays this video
And trickle down is snake oil
you own products that only millionaires would have owned in 1973. they trickled down.
@@SnabbKassaThis is false equalency. Trickle down is reffered to as “Money should trickle down into the ecoonomy through higher wages” but you know companies don’t like to pay their fair share either through taxation nor giving better wages.
The deficit gives me existential dread.
I know this is largely possible due to the US dollar being the world's reserve currency, but it really shows how unfair the system is for every other nation, even countries like France, who are sounding the alarm bells with smaller deficits
Ask the Maastricht rules
That and (at least so far) the US economy has shown that it can grow consistently, thereby maintaining the balance between the supply of money and the resources that money is chasing.
The military budget has been right there, ripe with potential for actually legitimated cuts for years now at an absolute minimum.
Presidents don't cut budgets, Congress does. This is especially true for your point about Clinton. It was a Republican congress that ran a surplus - hence why they take credit for it. Seriously, if you guys are going to do content on the USA, at least try to understand how the government works.
Nerd
@@kostas0352 lol I won't deny it.
@@jeffmorris5802 you're not wrong tho, respect the commitment
Wow, that was incorrect. The budget was a Clinton idea, he proposed it, it passed congress despite fierce republican opposition, you aren’t a nerd, you’re just uninformed. A president is allowed to submit budgets, congress has the ultimate authority tho.
I’m no expert on the Clinton era isn’t he know for working with the Republican congress also dose he not have the ability to veto the budget
Subscribed to nebula just to watch TlDr's What To Follow USA series. But there's literally only 2 videos. And nothing for more than a week. 😢 Didn't expect this let down.
I’m glad I lived through the Clinton years . We’ll never see a balanced budget again. We were on track to pay off our debt by the end of the 2000s.
We certainly were not, lol. It was only a slight budget surplus, it wouldn't have paid off the entire debt within a decade. But I'd much rather the US be $5T in debt right now than the $34T or whatever it is now.
The Clinton surplus caused a recession
And then 9/11 happened...
The government’s debt is the private sector’s surplus. As long as there is unemployment, deficit spending will not stoke inflation.
The problem is American voters want more free stuff and to pay less tax. You get the politics you deserve
The related TLDR video of redefining debt will be the cunning way politicians will convince the public
Do a video on “Why US politicians don’t care about me anymore”
-Remove current tax system, add a sales tax on all purchases, TBD this ensures everyone is taxed not just the poors.
-End Social security over the next 20 years, pay out to the ones at end of life and ramp down on taking in new payments from the younger generation.
-Privatize health, watch insurance rates and hospital and medical pricing free fall and be competitive.
-Privatize education, end the FASFA program. College tuition will drop like a rock. Encourage private lending. Watch how fast worthless credits disappear from degrees.
Fixd.
You must be crazy! US healthcare is already the worst in the "developed" world, yet you want it to all go private which means health becomes a game of who is going to win or lose....
Fun fact: it’s predicted the transition to 100% renewable energy, even with current tech, would save us nearly $1tn annually due to how much we spend subsidizing fossil fuel energy compared to what we would need to spend subsidizing renewable energies in the US.
Give the book "The Deficit Myth" a listen/read. I'm reading it now and will re-read at least once. Definitely might change how I'm viewing the "debt."
To be fair to this video, a higher ratio of "deficit" to GDP can increase inflation. One of the main takeaways from this book, which follows MMT, is that exactly.
At what point and how would a “debt crisis” even manifest?
mathematically speaking it can't unless congress willfully doesn't raise the arbitrary "debt ceiling" its like asking will donuts eventually run out of holes haha .
It depends. Given the US dolar is the most used currency, a US debt crisss would likely cause inflation everywhere over the world. Anywhere else it would just end up as a recession.
it literally cant its just a boogeyman used by republicans to deny funding public spending.
Look Brazil, like one from there I saw in 2015 a larger print money, inflation with a high real interest rate, unempoyment and low consumption. It's terrible, it's like a low cosumption with stagnation of Japan + records of inflation, the cicle of interest simply turned upside down.
if you starting to see high interest rate of fed and it is no more controlling the inflation here is it
In the current era of fiat money; debt, deficit or budget gaps doesn't mean much for a state - as long as international trade still is honoured (i.e. countries still do business with you).
The 'economic indicators' have meaning only when the trust is to be established; from then on, you're free to do whatever. When you print the money that other countries make their deals with; you get a 'get out of jail free card' in anyway.
They have dollars so it's doesn't matter they can print unlimited money 💵
But thats not without the limit. Money-printing means higher inflation... thus hurting the US residents in the process.
@@ilhamrj2599 money printing isnt inherently inflationary
@@ilhamrj2599 yes this implies to all other nation not US because dollars is world reserve currency and demand is very high in international market more than 70% world trade happen through dollars. Oil trade happen through dollars petro dollars is very strong 🛢💪
@@grimaffiliations3671 true... but still money-printing should be followed by increasing productivity thus increasing government revenue by taxation...
When it doesnt happen, you know what comes next... it is the inflation. So it might not be directly inherently related... but one thing does lead to another. Money-printing makes inflation more likely.
@@ilhamrj2599 Printing money creates enough demand for the economy to operate at full employment. Full employment leads to an increase in productivity. Also taxation doesn't actually increase government revenue. The government makes the dollar, so they already have an infinite supply of dollars. Taxes on the federal level are simply debited out of existence upon payment, they don't go anywhere. The government makes us pay them to create demand for the currency
They may not care about the debt but the debt certainly doesnt care about them.
There is no such thing as money anymore it's all electrons you can generate electrons very easily
I can see where are you coming from, but you are wrong in the sense that money is endless because the Federal Reserve or whatever central bank you have in your country can print as much money as they please. Money doesn’t have any intristical value whatsoever. It has as much value as much money is in the economy.
Edit: So to be more understandable, money doesn’t have any value. Try to think of it as a tool to allocate resources or power in the economy.
@@benedekgabor. The American power unit is backed by what?
@@dennisfarris4729 The US can’t run out of money because The Federal Reserve can print as much money as the congress want.
The U.S power is backed by the economy itself and their military might. The size and power of the american economy is also is the reason why is the USD is the “worlds” reserve” currency.
@@benedekgabor. So therefore the national debt is just a joke, a game they play.
@@dennisfarris4729 Well this is a bit contextual, so it’s a both of a yes and no.
You have two ways of balancing the budget. It’s either cutting state programs such as social security, subsidies or tax increases.
As long as the GDP can prop up the economy and isn’t much lower than the national debt it should be fine tho. The problem starts when the interest rates are too high on the government bonds, and public sector job payments cannot be covered. If that happens then the U.S will be in an interesting situation.
My stance is that it shouldn’t be this high, but government programs like the IRA should help exactly with that. It’ll just take a few years.
Well when everyone goes crazy, you don't want to be the lone voice of reason.
Average Trump answer: "nobody thought its possible... its crazy... its horrible actually"
Ok.
gop is responsible for over 50% of all debt. Especially after orange.
@@kronos7110 Who is responsible for the other 50%?
@@Veritas.0
See how YT deleted my komment? I must have been too factual.
@@Veritas.0
Dems are, obviously. But they actually use money for the pple, unlike GQP.
@@Veritas.0 you are aware that inb the last 50 year the only time there was a surplus was under bill clinton
3:14 as an Italian, when a country’s debt reaches Italy’s levels something is going wrong 😂
It all went wrong when the gold standard was abandoned
If borrowing more leads to higher economic growth, the the deficit shouldn't matter
Mathematically speaking if the us debt was paid off and securities matured without new ones issued the money supply would literally go to ZERO because on the federal reserve balance sheet assets = liabilities,
because money is only created when the federal reserve purchases and asset and what they can purchase is limited by the federal reserve act.
Essentially this obsession with paying off the debt is just a conservative "pull yourself up by the bootstrap" bias that doesn't coincide with reality.
Correct, you shouldn’t strive to pay off the entirety of a nation’s debt.
That being said, incurring too much debt would result in a ridiculously high interest payment that would consequently mean the nation is unable to even pay it’s running cost (you know maintenance).
You have made a mistake when talking about how much Kamala Harris and Trump plan to increase the deficit which is adding the forecasted cost of policies over a whole term onto the yearly fiscal deficit.
The politician are s0ending money like Americans themselves are spending. When voters themselves are financially irresponsible, of course they elect politicians who are also.
Money is an artificial limiting factor
Because the government is keynesian. Because managing macroeconomy is different from managing a household budget. The Federal Reserve can easily print money and as long as productivity also grows, inflation is not a problem.
What happened in the rest of the world is not the concern of the US government.
Keynesian economics suggests that at a time of high GDP growth, like the US is actually in now, it is best to reduce government spending, so you can increase it again in times of economic downturn. Right now that isn't happening.
All I'm hearing is as long as the line is going up, we good! 📈📈📈
@@dylanschulz9118 well said. Keynesian teach us to act fast when needed and to become responsible once everything has stabilised.
it'll be once the dollar loses its place as the reference currency, it's only a matter of time, like murphy's law states.
@@dylanschulz9118 have they actually done that ever? Seems like the US is just doing Italian politics of the 90's. Unlimited spending no accountability and in the end it will lead to only stagnation
7:10 *Both Economists can be correct but in 2 different scenarios: if the US continues being the global reserve currency, the one on the right would be correct; if the opposite is true, the one on the left would be correct.*
The debt is an issue that will never be solved by any politician if we are being honest, the people who run America have gotten to arrogant after the collapse of the Soviet Union and thought that the "end of history" had begun when in actuality one period of history ended and another period began.
The truth is, is that no nation can be number one forever, however people have seen to have forgotten that, this is why any collapse of America will be more violent than people think because the people who run the country would likely be ok with massive amounts of Americans dying as long as it didn't affect them or cause them to lose power.
Looking at the streets of major cities in American you will see countless amounts of homeless people suffering and people on fentanyl, yet the politicians will do little about it because it doesn't affect them.
I've heard people compare the United States to Rome but I feel like it would be more accurate to compare the United States to the Ottoman Empire, a great Empire that in its prime was the main power of the world, but as time went on an Empire that slowey decayed and lost territory became its leaders were too busy enjoying their harems to care.
No politician can save you to be honest and if you want a savior I would suggest you read the Bible and ask Jesus to save you, but in the meantime I suggest you do everything you can to protect your family and make sure their taken care of first, because lets be honest, if things go south the politicians already have an escape plan.
I really hope America doesn't collapse considering the fact that countless Americans like me have a life here, but with American politicians not learning anything from history and thinking America is "to big to fail" we must always keep our guard up.
America is only collapsing because it isn't close to democratic and the people that are "voted in" do not care about its citizens.
They copied early France but never allowed for revolutions to happen. Comparing to Rome would indeed be inaccurate.
It's fascinating how either party has voters.
They've really taken the country hostage
The thing that most people don't get about governmental debt is that it's not like personal debt. The money doesn't just "disappear" into a bank vault. The US government is essentially giving it's investors (bond holders) a stable return on investment. The people use US debt as a source of income from their capital, an alternative to riskier bets like the stockmarket. Having no debt would actually be a major problem, as the economy needs safe investment options. Yes, it is a wealth transfer from tax payers to bond holders, but most of those bond holders are retirees and wealth management firms. It's not like those interest payments vanish, the money does go back into circulation, and even taxed again eventually. The point is, a healthy amount of debt is actually a good thing. That being said, when Trump added $7.8 trillion debt over his 4 years in office, it has become a bit of a problem because eventually the interest payments could become more than the government can handle, which would result in people no longer wanting to buy bonds. The reason neighter politician wants to talk about it is because Trump knows he'll just get hammered on his own contribution to the debt, and Kamila knows she'll just get hammered on her own policies suggestions, so why would either of them bring it up?
I cannot in good conscience vote for either one when there is no balanced budget in sight.
The real reason is mention at 7:22 ie the dollar being the world reserve currency (mainly due to Bretton Woods in 1944), america can print money like there is no tomorrow. The moment the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the US will collapse due to its addition to debit. This is not an impossibility, china and some other countries (eg the BRICS) are already working on this. However it is not likely to happen in the near future.
BRICS economy is worse even if thry were a united force (they arnt)
There were previous 'enduring reserve currencies.' They got collapsed under their own weight. As it is, I'd say that while advances in technology have increased the overall numbers, the actual percentages of the involved forces did not change all that much.
To be fair, the US dollar is the world reserve currency which means they can literally print endless amounts of money.
All the handwringing about deficits is just performative at this point..
Well if the interest rates become too high for bonds, and for other countries, and the GDP can’t prop up it then we’ll be in an interesting situation.
Politicians only care about the deficit when out of power and want a cudgel against the spendthrifts currently in office. Once in office, they inevitably find it much easier to borrow and/or print cash because most voters like spending (at least when it benefits them) and few are fond of taxes. They won't be in office anymore when the bills come due anyhow.
Repeat after me: Debt = Savings.
Wiping out Debt = wiping out savings.
1 trillion in interest payments, how does that work. Imagine paying just half of the debt and then using that money for something else
Trump has no idea about what he's talking about in any situation so I'd be surprised if anyone is actually surprised by now!
The left has no idea what they’re talking about. The left is evil and the right is righteous. It’s always funny that the evil people see itself as the good guys. Stalin also thought he was good.
Yeah a billionaire isn't smarter than you 😂😂😂
And yet his economic policy is still better than Harris.
That's not saying much since his answer to everything us just "mUh....ťAŕřìfFs" but at the very least he's trying to attack inflation at its core. Though it is very unsustainable and heavily depends on Chinese tarrifs which is a very short term solution seeing China is turning way from US trade.
Harris however 😂😂😂😂😂, oh goodness where do I begin ?. You can't just give people money to lower costs of food since that will obviously not last for ever without a drastic increase in Americas output.
Not to mention price gouging (AKA: Price controls if we're being honest) has failed nearly every place it's been implemented.
alleged billionaire who lost millions given to him by his father and has declared bankruptcy multiple times whilst having numerous companies and ventures go insolvent... Some of us just like to focus on doing what we can with what we have rather than feel like we're entitled to everybody else's slice of the pie
@@nightprowler6336 Among all the great minds of human history none was a billionaire or impressively wealthy so there’s no correlation between wealth and intelligence especially when people are born rich.
Trump didn’t invent anything or created a profitable business he just put the 400 million he got from his father in real estate.
Basically he made his money like most American boomers only he had 400 million to invest rather than a mortgage on 100k house which is now worth a million.
I have never heard anyone say "strengthening the economy" is the top priority.
They never did, and for good reason. Deficits are nothing more than net financial transfers of wealth away from the government and to the private sector. This is good for the economy
It appears to be the case that Fiscal Surplus forces private industry to deleverage by quite literally deleting money out of the system. This forces private industry to enter a deficit - leading to a recession, which if you're the government, the only solution is to start the fiscal deficit again, or face a downward spiral of deflation, further deleveraging in the private industry and entering a depression (which is exactly what happened at the start of the great depression before they got wise and started spending money again). The literal only cost to more stimulus spending is the inflation that can and likely will occur (because who can perfectly plan spending in under-resourced industries / sectors). And the interest being paid on debt is just another form of stimulus, albeit poorly distributed to mostly already rich people.