The Biden Economy

[Dondilion]

Could you expand on manageable levels.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

Could you expand on manageable levels.

I don't know how much debt the economy can carry. The question seems to raise a lot of argument. But out of an abundance of caution, I would make the goal to be debt growth on average equal to the rate of revenue growth, so that debt service as a % of GDP becomes constant.

As I noted before, there's plenty of space in the economy, compared to others, for increasing taxation, if we really wanted to erase the deficit and work on reducing the debt we could do it. It would get easier and easier to do it, once we got started, as the economy grew while the debt did not.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Liabilities and assets makes no sense when it comes to the government. The government should hold relatively limited notable assets, in itself, other than operating plant--buildings and computers and satellites and such--and national defense assets, to include weapons systems and facilities. The one real asset, the thing to weigh against the debt, is the entire productive capacity of the country, which the government taps to pay ongoing expenses and service the debt. The debt was created on behalf of all and for the benefit of all, and we all collectively owe it. The debt, basically, is secured by our ability and willingness, with our economy and through our government, to continue to provide money to service it.

Indeed. Hence all of the comparisons of the economics of running a household with that of a sovereign nation with a $25 trillion economy and the world reserve currency are just plain silly, though sometimes useful for dumbed-down illustrative purposes when dealing with certain economic illiterates on this forum.😜

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

The federal balance sheet is published each year. You can find copies on the US treasury website that go back to 1975. It's really not that hard to find, but just to speed things up, here you go: https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/repo...nancial-report. These reports account for tangible and intangible assets. So, if you missed that detail, maybe you weren't paying attention.

Back in 1975, the debt outstanding was over $394 billion (adjusted). Assets were $354 billion. You can already see when looking at the Liabilities and Equities" section of the report that 1975 debt increased by $57.9 billion over 1974. The easy answer to that is like we do every year, spending outpaced revenue.

The valuation of assets is highly suspect. The value of 620 million acres of federal lands, offshore mineral rights and the electromagnetic spectrum alone greatly exceed this number. Add to that the improvements (and other assets) upon this land and the intellectual property rights of DOD, DOE, NIH and others and this number becomes even more unrealistic.

This illustrates how using conventional economic analysis often fails when talking about the federal government.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

The valuation of assets is highly suspect. The value of 620 million acres of federal lands, offshore mineral rights and the electromagnetic spectrum alone greatly exceed this number. Add to that the improvements (and other assets) upon this land and the intellectual property rights of DOD, DOE, NIH and others and this number becomes even more unrealistic.

This illustrates how using conventional economic analysis often fails when talking about the federal government.

Of course the gov't financial data is suspect. Getting away with paying interest only on debt that goes back decades is suspect. There's a recurring annual entry with a figure of billions of dollars that supposedly represents disagreements between agencies regarding funds disbursed versus funds spent. No CPA would certify a financial statement like this.

But, it's all we have to work with since the US gov't doesn't think it needs to be terribly transparent about the comings and goings of money from the Treasury.

One thing, however, is not in dispute: both the debt and the revenue numbers go up every single year.

[Chicks]

For comedic relief: Billboard in Bakersfield, CA. Gotta love it, right Whell?

[whell]

Originally Posted by Chicks

For comedic relief: Billboard in Bakersfield, CA. Gotta love it, right Whell?

That's hilarious. I love how that photo of Schiff makes it almost look like he's sporting a halo. Priceless!

[Chicks]

Originally Posted by whell

I love how that photo of Schiff makes it almost look like he's sporting a halo.

Of course, compared to your hero, the snivelling, lying, weak, desperate little weasel McCarthy, he's certainly far more qualified to wear.

[whell]

Originally Posted by Chicks

Of course, compared to your hero, the snivelling, lying, weak, desperate little weasel McCarthy, he's certainly far more qualified to wear.

Hate much?

[donquixote99]

I will note, looking at history, that there appears to be exactly zero interest in the Republican party in actually reducing the deficit, let alone balancing the budget. They just portray this as a crisis when they can blame it on the Democrats.