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

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (FAANG) have been the motor of the S&P 500 stock market index.

Dan Rochefort

2018-06-11 07:44:00 Monday ET

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (FAANG) have been the motor of the S&P 500 stock market index.

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (FAANG) have been the motor of the S&P 500 stock market index. Several economic media commentators contend

+See More

AYA fintech finbuzz illustrative video tutorials on YouTube

Amy Hamilton

2019-05-05 10:46:10 Sunday ET

AYA fintech finbuzz illustrative video tutorials on YouTube

This video collection shows the major features of our AYA fintech network platform for stock market investors: (1) AYA stock market content curation;&nbs

+See More

Geopolitical alignment often reshapes and reinforces asset market fragmentation in the broader context of financial deglobalization.

Olivia London

2025-07-01 13:35:00 Tuesday ET

Geopolitical alignment often reshapes and reinforces asset market fragmentation in the broader context of financial deglobalization.

In recent times, financial deglobalization and asset market fragmentation can cause profound public policy implications for trade, finance, and technology w

+See More

Thomas Piketty connects the dots between economic growth and inequality worldwide with long-term global empirical evidence.

Chanel Holden

2023-05-28 10:24:00 Sunday ET

Thomas Piketty connects the dots between economic growth and inequality worldwide with long-term global empirical evidence.

Thomas Piketty connects the dots between economic growth and inequality worldwide with long-term global empirical evidence. Thomas Piketty (2017) &nbs

+See More

Capital market liberalization and globalization connect global financial markets to allow an ocean of money to flow through them.

Becky Berkman

2018-06-17 10:35:00 Sunday ET

Capital market liberalization and globalization connect global financial markets to allow an ocean of money to flow through them.

In the past decades, capital market liberalization and globalization have combined to connect global financial markets to allow an ocean of money to flow th

+See More

Daniel Goleman explains why emotional intelligence is more important than high IQ for our success, virtue, and happiness in life.

Olivia London

2025-06-21 10:25:00 Saturday ET

Daniel Goleman explains why emotional intelligence is more important than high IQ for our success, virtue, and happiness in life.

Former New York Times science author and Harvard psychologist Daniel Goleman explains why emotional intelligence can serve as a more important critical succ

+See More