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 business legacy of Steve Jobs transforms smart mobile devices with Internet connectivity and digital content.

Becky Berkman

2020-03-19 13:39:00 Thursday ET

The business legacy of Steve Jobs transforms smart mobile devices with Internet connectivity and digital content.

The business legacy and sensitivity of Steve Jobs can transform smart mobile devices with Internet connectivity, music and video content curation, and digit

+See More

Goldman Sachs takes a $5 billion net income hit that results from its offshore cash repatriation under the Trump tax law.

Charlene Vos

2018-01-02 12:39:00 Tuesday ET

Goldman Sachs takes a $5 billion net income hit that results from its offshore cash repatriation under the Trump tax law.

Goldman Sachs takes a $5 billion net income hit that results from its offshore cash repatriation under the new Trump tax law. This income hit reflects 10%-1

+See More

The bank-credit-card model and fintech platforms have adapted well to the recent digitization of cashless finance.

Daphne Basel

2023-11-30 08:29:00 Thursday ET

The bank-credit-card model and fintech platforms have adapted well to the recent digitization of cashless finance.

In addition to the OECD bank-credit-card model and Chinese online payment platforms, the open-payments gateways of UPI in India and Pix in Brazil have adapt

+See More

The Trump team now aims to make progress on health care, infrastructure, social welfare, and immigration.

Monica McNeil

2018-01-06 07:32:00 Saturday ET

The Trump team now aims to make progress on health care, infrastructure, social welfare, and immigration.

Subsequent to the Trump tax cuts for Christmas in December 2017, the one-year-old Trump presidency now aims to make progress on health care, infrastructure,

+See More

Trump imposes tariffs on steel and aluminum in a trade war with some exemptions for Canada and Mexico.

Olivia London

2018-03-01 07:35:00 Thursday ET

Trump imposes tariffs on steel and aluminum in a trade war with some exemptions for Canada and Mexico.

Trump imposes high tariffs on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) in a new trade war with subsequent exemptions for Canada and Mexico. The Trump administration&#

+See More

Stock Synopsis: Pharmaceutical post-pandemic patent development cycle

John Fourier

2024-05-05 10:31:00 Sunday ET

Stock Synopsis: Pharmaceutical post-pandemic patent development cycle

Stock Synopsis: Pharmaceutical post-pandemic patent development cycle In terms of stock market valuation, the major pharmaceutical sector remains at its

+See More