Investing and Global Finance News

Understanding America’s Public Debt

America’s debt is huge.  Standing at 22 trillion dollars, this figure is not doing anyone any favors.  Indeed, according to Research Assistant at the Catholic University  of America, Robert Warren, “we have a credit card now and our grandchildrens name is on the card and they will get the bill. They will have to pay back for us, 22 trillion dollars to our creditors and they will receive no direct benefit from it.”

There should be cause for concern.  The current figure is actually the highest it has ever been, reflecting an increase of over $2 trillion from 2017 when Trump came into power.  Which is strange really given that America is currently in its second-longest economic expansion since the post-WWII boom.  And annual deficits are anticipated to rise even more.

Furthermore, according to the CBO, the next decade will witness an anticipated growth of $1.2 trillion per annum.  Plus: “Other than the period immediately after World War II, the only other time the average deficit has been so large over so many years was after the 2007–2009 recession.”  

It’s therefore crucial to put tax increases in place in an effort to reduce the debt issue.  While of course this is hard to hear for most people, some wealthy individuals welcome it.  Indeed, a few months ago, billionaire Douglas Durst said outright that he “support[s] higher taxes on people like

[him]

.”  If it isn’t going to have much impact on this sect of society, but it could positively effect the US economy.

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.