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

Apple files an appeal to overturn the recent iPhone sales ban in China due to its patent infringement of Qualcomm proprietary technology.

Jonah Whanau

2018-12-17 08:43:00 Monday ET

Apple files an appeal to overturn the recent iPhone sales ban in China due to its patent infringement of Qualcomm proprietary technology.

Apple files an appeal to overturn the recent iPhone sales ban in China due to its patent infringement of Qualcomm proprietary technology. This recent ban of

+See More

U.S. federalism and domestic institutional arrangements

Olivia London

2023-12-10 09:23:00 Sunday ET

U.S. federalism and domestic institutional arrangements

U.S. federalism and domestic institutional arrangements A given country is federal when both of its national and sub-national governments exercise separa

+See More

Empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction

Apple Boston

2022-02-25 00:00:00 Friday ET

Empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction

Empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction  The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) of Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965), and Bla

+See More

Warren Buffett stock market investment principles

Daphne Basel

2020-02-05 10:28:00 Wednesday ET

Warren Buffett stock market investment principles

Our proprietary AYA fintech finbuzz essay shines light on the modern collection of business insights with executive annotations and personal reflections. Th

+See More

AYA Analytica podcast provides fresh insights into the latest stock market issues, economic trends, and investment portfolio strategies.

Daphne Basel

2019-05-30 16:44:00 Thursday ET

AYA Analytica podcast provides fresh insights into the latest stock market issues, economic trends, and investment portfolio strategies.

AYA Analytica finbuzz podcast channel on YouTube May 2019 In this podcast, we discuss several topical issues as of May 2019: (1) Our proprietary alp

+See More

Dr Karl Ulrich explains that many elite universities now provide massive open online courses (MOOCs) for lifelong learners to achieve their medium-term goals for better intellectual focus, immersion, personal growth, and self-improvement.

Charlene Vos

2025-08-09 11:31:00 Saturday ET

Dr Karl Ulrich explains that many elite universities now provide massive open online courses (MOOCs) for lifelong learners to achieve their medium-term goals for better intellectual focus, immersion, personal growth, and self-improvement.

Wharton e-commerce entrepreneurship professor Dr Karl Ulrich explains that many top-notch universities now provide massive open online courses (MOOCs) for m

+See More