Or so this author and economist seem to say.
IMO, $20 trillion says we're in deep doo-doo.
Most US Gov’t spending comes nowhere close to looking like an Investment that will have a positive return.
That's comforting. We're not bankrupt because we can always hold a liquidation sale.
A 20% import tariff balances the budget tomorrow.
The writer graduated from the Krugman school of third grade math.
We have managed to stay ahead of the costs of debt for two reasons.
1. There has been unprecedented increases in productivity for the last century.
2. The United States has been shown to be the most stable and safe country in the world. (You might argue about Europe, but Europe’s stability has been far less than the U.S. (WWII) and post WWII the stability has been made possible by the U.S. Military.
We cannot be certain that those two factors will continue for the next 20 years.
Keynes was wrong.....except for his observation that in the long run we are all dead
This article is based on a false premise, a family can have a mortgage and *still* have a balanced budget, as long as they are making their mortgage payments (which is interest and part of the principle). So having a balanced budget amendment doesn’t prevent the US from borrowing in emergency situations. It just requires the government to make plans for paying back the loan when it does borrow.
reign in spending
Our government has been reigning in spending for decades. The term the author means is rein in spending as in pulling the "brakes" on a horse.
Even the Keynesians don't argue for perpetual deficits. They want to run deficits during recessions and surpluses during the good times. We are far, far past that.
My old hometown newspaper. As far left as the NYT.
And along the way discovered that to be debt free is to be happy, and wake up every morning thanking God for His gift of prudence.