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

New computer algorithms and passive mutual fund managers now run the stock market.

Joseph Corr

2019-11-17 14:43:00 Sunday ET

New computer algorithms and passive mutual fund managers now run the stock market.

New computer algorithms and passive mutual fund managers run the stock market. Morningstar suggests that the total dollar amount of passive equity assets re

+See More

USPTO fintech patent protection and accreditation

Andy Yeh Alpha

2023-01-03 09:34:00 Tuesday ET

USPTO fintech patent protection and accreditation

  USPTO fintech patent protection and accreditation   As of early-January 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has approved

+See More

All of the 18 systemically important banks pass the annual Federal Reserve stress tests.

James Campbell

2019-07-30 15:33:00 Tuesday ET

All of the 18 systemically important banks pass the annual Federal Reserve stress tests.

All of the 18 systemically important banks pass the annual Federal Reserve stress tests. Many of the largest lenders announce higher cash payouts to shareho

+See More

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold.

Olivia London

2018-05-19 09:29:00 Saturday ET

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold. The interim suspension of U.S. tariffs should offer in

+See More

Agile business firms beat the odds by building faster institutional reflexes to anticipate plausible economic scenarios.

Fiona Sydney

2020-09-03 10:26:00 Thursday ET

Agile business firms beat the odds by building faster institutional reflexes to anticipate plausible economic scenarios.

Agile business firms beat the odds by building faster institutional reflexes to anticipate plausible economic scenarios. Christopher Worley, Thomas Willi

+See More

In the current global market for better biotech advances, medical innovations, and healthcare services, the new integration of artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the competitive landscape worldwide.

Charlene Vos

2026-04-30 08:28:00 Thursday ET

In the current global market for better biotech advances, medical innovations, and healthcare services, the new integration of artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the competitive landscape worldwide.

In the current global market for better biotech advances, medical innovations, and healthcare services, the new integration of artificial intelligence (AI)

+See More