Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
Bring it on.
What's wrong with US national debt?
- Thread starter Hygro
- Start date
Bring it on.
CavLancer
This aint fertilizer
Its too big?!?? Its getting...bigger?!!?
CavLancer
This aint fertilizer
Sexy! :b:
Lets spend more $, she will only get better lookin. Lets print it then spend it. $ are the biggest US export by far.
Lets spend more $, she will only get better lookin. Lets print it then spend it. $ are the biggest US export by far.
CavLancer
This aint fertilizer
Cradle to grave.
Synobun
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2006
- Messages
- 24,592
Life's only worth livin' if you're a slave to the bank and the cogs in the machine.
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
Why is the debt in the US worse than the (relative) similar-sized debt in Germany? I've heard the two were relatively similar sized (that is, strictly relative to their respective bnp)
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
yes bnp is gnp in Danish terminology. But ok. Then I've misunderstood some article, somewhere. Or it might''ve just lied to me. Who knows.
Depends on the definition and source.
Wikipedia claims that the US "Public debt as % of GDP" is 72.5%(CIA); the "Gross Government Debt as a % of GDP" is 106.5% (IMF) and "Net Government Debt as % of GDP" is 87.9% (IMF).
The equivalent numbers for Germany are 81.7%, 82% and 57.2%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_national_debt
So Germany does seem to be less indebted, but it's kind of shady (as government finances usually are). I know it's hard to compare different countries, because they employ different definitions (for instance, in Brazil the government mixes up it's own debt with that of state-owned companies).
Tahuti
Writing Deity
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2005
- Messages
- 9,492
Debt destroys freedom of maneuvering to take action by spending money or forgoing taxes, same for any country. If the population faces a sudden decline or when there is an economic crisis, the GDP growth or even the GDP itself will shrink and the projected income necessary pay the projected debts cannot be met. Which results in further debt.
Eventually, time catches up. If it can't pay up with what it has, it has to print money. There is nothing bad about printing money in principle, but if it turned out the US could not meet its interest payments, it would have to print up a lot. And if debt is denominated in a foreign currency, you are even further <snip>.
And before you say that debt is necessary to get a nation out of a crisis, please note that John Maynard Keynes advocated DEFICIT spending, not indebting yourself into oblivion. Deficit spending simply means that you will be getting less than is necessary for a break even and sure as hell doesn't imply taking on any more debt.
Besides, the indebtedness of governments acts as a subsidy to banks, significantly oversizing them and giving financial institutions an undue clout over the economy.
Moderator Action: Inappropriate language removed.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
Eventually, time catches up. If it can't pay up with what it has, it has to print money. There is nothing bad about printing money in principle, but if it turned out the US could not meet its interest payments, it would have to print up a lot. And if debt is denominated in a foreign currency, you are even further <snip>.
And before you say that debt is necessary to get a nation out of a crisis, please note that John Maynard Keynes advocated DEFICIT spending, not indebting yourself into oblivion. Deficit spending simply means that you will be getting less than is necessary for a break even and sure as hell doesn't imply taking on any more debt.
Besides, the indebtedness of governments acts as a subsidy to banks, significantly oversizing them and giving financial institutions an undue clout over the economy.
Moderator Action: Inappropriate language removed.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
We talked about this earlier. So you know my answer:
It's not properly serving its purpose.
No, it's not. *shrug*
There is this Italian term "brutto".
You'll find a "B" at the beginning of the respective version of "gnp" in not just most romance languages but in virtually all germanic* languages as well.
Like this:
Bruttonationalprodukt
Bruttotjóðarúrtøka
Bruto nationaal product
Bruttonationaleinkommen
*Except English of course.
I think the majority answer is "it's a big number, and keeps going up", so it's mostly a psychological issue.
The real answer might easily be "debt service is a large portion of the budget and is currently artificially low" coupled with "the debt runs the risk of rising faster than economic growth"
The real answer might easily be "debt service is a large portion of the budget and is currently artificially low" coupled with "the debt runs the risk of rising faster than economic growth"
duckstab
Child of Noble Family
No, it's not. The federal deficit is falling. Fast. In fact, some economists are worried it's falling too fast.
Congratulations America Your Deficit Fell 37% in 2013
Long term deficits are a problem. But there's a right and a wrong time to attack them. Now is the wrong time, when the economy is still wheezing along. The right time is to do so when things are humming along and strong federal revenues can be used to pay down the deficit.
Yes, the national debt is getting bigger. And Cavlancer was not referring to the deficit.
Evie
Pronounced like Eevee
It's a little higher than it should probably be, but not in an end-of-world kind of way.
People are just confusing national debt with credit card debt and thinking the same rules applies.
People are just confusing national debt with credit card debt and thinking the same rules applies.
Similar threads
