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

What are the best online stock market investment tools?

Amy Hamilton

2021-07-07 05:22:00 Wednesday ET

What are the best online stock market investment tools?

What are the best online stock market investment tools? Stock trading has seen an explosion since the start of the pandemic. As people lost their jobs an

+See More

Corporate investment insights from mergers and acquisitions

Joseph Corr

2022-10-25 11:31:00 Tuesday ET

Corporate investment insights from mergers and acquisitions

Corporate investment insights from mergers and acquisitions Relative market misvaluation between the bidder and target firms drives most waves of mergers

+See More

Apple unveils 3 iPhone 11 models with new original video services and stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, and Reese Witherspoon.

Joseph Corr

2019-10-13 16:22:00 Sunday ET

Apple unveils 3 iPhone 11 models with new original video services and stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, and Reese Witherspoon.

Apple unveils 3 iPhone 11 models with new original video services and stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, and Reese Witherspoon. Apple releases t

+See More

Fed Chair Janet Yellen confirms with her successor Jerome Powell the final interest rate hike in December 2017.

Joseph Corr

2017-12-14 12:41:00 Thursday ET

Fed Chair Janet Yellen confirms with her successor Jerome Powell the final interest rate hike in December 2017.

Federal Reserve raises the interest rate by 25 basis points to the target range of 1.25% to 1.5% as FOMC members revise up their GDP estimate from 2% to 2.5

+See More

Netflix stares at higher content costs as Disney and Fox hold merger talks.

Joseph Corr

2017-10-21 08:45:00 Saturday ET

Netflix stares at higher content costs as Disney and Fox hold merger talks.

Netflix stares at higher content costs as Disney and Fox hold merger talks. Disney has held talks to acquire most of 21st Century Fox's business equity.

+See More

After its iPhone X launch, Apple reports its highest quarterly revenue over $80 billion in the tech titan's 41-year history.

Amy Hamilton

2018-01-25 08:32:00 Thursday ET

After its iPhone X launch, Apple reports its highest quarterly revenue over $80 billion in the tech titan's 41-year history.

After its flagship iPhone X launch, Apple reports its highest quarterly sales revenue over $80 billion in the tech titan's 41-year history. Apple expect

+See More