So I'm aware that:
1) The interest on the debt is barely above inflation, making the money practically "free"
2) The most meaningful measure of the debt is debt/GDP ratio which means that even if the debt remains static, an increasing GDP will make it go 'down' (so no need to actually pay it off)
3) Because of #1 there are a lot of investments that give a legit ROI that's greater than the interest on the debt and are therefore wise to borrow money for
4) The gov can always print money so absolute worst case scenario they can convert their debt into inflation by printing money and paying off the debt with that
I hope the above convinces people I'm not a mindless /r/collapse debt hawk
EVEN SO..
I have noticed that lately in 'bad times' e.g. 2008 the debt/GDP ratio gets run up massively to get us out of the bad times.. and in 'good times' it does no better than hold steady. Even this ridiculously good economic paradise year the debt/GDP ratio went down.. 0.4% or something. That means that it's now basically policy to never decrease the ratio.
What do people imagine as the endgame here? It can't just keep going up and up before.. what?
Submitted October 30, 2018 at 12:26PM by FilthyWishDragon https://ift.tt/2OdIMMI
