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

President Trump indicates that he would consider an interim Sino-American trade deal in lieu of a full trade agreement.

Apple Boston

2019-10-03 17:39:00 Thursday ET

President Trump indicates that he would consider an interim Sino-American trade deal in lieu of a full trade agreement.

President Trump indicates that he would consider an interim Sino-American trade deal in lieu of a full trade agreement. The Trump administration defers high

+See More

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Laura Hermes

2019-01-29 10:33:00 Tuesday ET

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work. In fact, multinational manufacturers have been trying to create global suppl

+See More

Successful founders focus on their continuous growth, passion, perseverance, and the collective wisdom of most team members.

Laura Hermes

2020-06-17 09:23:00 Wednesday ET

Successful founders focus on their continuous growth, passion, perseverance, and the collective wisdom of most team members.

Successful founders focus on their continuous growth, passion, perseverance, and the collective wisdom of most team members. William Ferguson (2013) &

+See More

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King provides his deep substantive analysis of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009.

Monica McNeil

2023-03-07 11:29:00 Tuesday ET

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King provides his deep substantive analysis of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009.

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King provides his deep substantive analysis of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009. Mervyn King (2017) &nb

+See More

The new world order of trade helps accomplish non-economic policy goals such as national security and technological dominance.

Amy Hamilton

2024-01-31 14:33:00 Wednesday ET

The new world order of trade helps accomplish non-economic policy goals such as national security and technological dominance.

The new world order of trade helps accomplish non-economic policy goals such as national security and technological dominance. To the extent that freer

+See More

Amazon and Google face more intense antitrust scrutiny.

Apple Boston

2019-06-21 13:33:00 Friday ET

Amazon and Google face more intense antitrust scrutiny.

Amazon and Google face more intense antitrust scrutiny. In recent times, Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have reached an internal agreement

+See More