The U.S. federal government debt has risen from less than 40% of total GDP about a decade ago to 78% as of May 2018.

John Fourier

2018-06-01 07:30:00 Fri ET

The U.S. federal government debt has risen from less than 40% of total GDP about a decade ago to 78% as of May 2018. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that this ratio will surge to 96% in 2028. Although many blame the Trump tax cuts as the key root cause, the increases in health care and retirement benefits suggest a different real reason for U.S. deficit severity.

Harvard professor Martin Feldstein attributes the recent rise of U.S. budget deficit from 4% to 5% of total GDP to increases in Medicare and social security retirement benefits for middle-class older Americans. These increases in core health care and retirement benefits account for about 2.7% of total GDP. The neoclassical Sargent-Wallace thesis suggests that the central bank cannot finance incessant increases in core deficits with government bond issuance regardless of money supply growth. This money supply expansion would lead to inexorable inflationary pressures that defeat the dual mandate of both maximum employment and price stability in the suboptimal fiscal-monetary policy coordination. Inflation serves as a seigniorage tax that would in turn dampen real macroeconomic variates such as household consumption, capital investment, labor supply, and total economic output. In light of this ripple effect on sustainable financial market growth and prosperity, the law of inadvertent consequences counsels caution.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

The unique controversial management style of Steve Jobs helps translate his business acumen into smart product development.

Dan Rochefort

2020-03-26 10:31:00 Thursday ET

The unique controversial management style of Steve Jobs helps translate his business acumen into smart product development.

The unique controversial management style of Steve Jobs helps translate his business acumen into smart product development. Jay Elliot (2012) Leading

+See More

A congressional division between Democrats and Republicans can cause ripple effects on Trump economic reforms.

Becky Berkman

2018-11-29 11:33:00 Thursday ET

A congressional division between Democrats and Republicans can cause ripple effects on Trump economic reforms.

A congressional division between Democrats and Republicans can cause ripple effects on Trump economic reforms. As Democrats have successfully flipped the Ho

+See More

Mike Pompeo switches his critical role from CIA Director to State Secretary in a secret visit to North Korea.

Peter Prince

2018-04-13 14:42:00 Friday ET

Mike Pompeo switches his critical role from CIA Director to State Secretary in a secret visit to North Korea.

Mike Pompeo switches his critical role from CIA Director to State Secretary in a secret visit to North Korea with no regime change as the North Korean dicta

+See More

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

Apple Boston

2019-01-08 17:46:00 Tuesday ET

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

President Trump forces the Federal Reserve to normalize the current interest rate hike to signal its own monetary policy independence from the White House.

+See More

The new Brexit deal can boost British pound appreciation and macroeconomic optimism.

Fiona Sydney

2019-11-13 11:34:00 Wednesday ET

The new Brexit deal can boost British pound appreciation and macroeconomic optimism.

The new Brexit deal can boost British pound appreciation and economic optimism. British prime minister Boris Johnson wins the parliamentary vote on his new

+See More

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fundamental analysis of Apple (U.S. stock symbol: $AAPL).

Laura Hermes

2025-09-13 12:23:00 Saturday ET

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fundamental analysis of Apple (U.S. stock symbol: $AAPL).

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fund

+See More