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

Federal Reserve delivers a second interest rate hike to 1.75%-2% and then expects more rate increases in late-2018.

Charlene Vos

2018-06-08 13:35:00 Friday ET

Federal Reserve delivers a second interest rate hike to 1.75%-2% and then expects more rate increases in late-2018.

The Federal Reserve delivers a second interest rate hike to 1.75%-2% and then expects subsequent rate increases in September and December 2018 to dampen inf

+See More

President Donald Trump releases his plan to slash income taxes for U.S. citizens and corporations.

Jacob Miramar

2017-09-03 10:44:00 Sunday ET

President Donald Trump releases his plan to slash income taxes for U.S. citizens and corporations.

President Donald Trump has released his plan to slash income taxes for U.S. citizens and corporations. The corporate income tax rate will decline from 35% t

+See More

Basic income reforms can contribute to better health care, infrastructure, education, technology, and residential protection.

Daisy Harvey

2023-02-28 10:27:00 Tuesday ET

Basic income reforms can contribute to better health care, infrastructure, education, technology, and residential protection.

Basic income reforms can contribute to better health care, public infrastructure, education, technology, and residential protection. Philippe Van Parijs

+See More

Higher public debt levels, interest rate hikes, and subpar Chinese economic growth rates are the major risks to the world economy.

Daphne Basel

2019-01-23 11:32:00 Wednesday ET

Higher public debt levels, interest rate hikes, and subpar Chinese economic growth rates are the major risks to the world economy.

Higher public debt levels, global interest rate hikes, and subpar Chinese economic growth rates are the major risks to the world economy from 2019 to 2020.

+See More

The Trump administration postpones increasing 25% to 30% tariffs on $250 billion Chinese imports after China extends an olive branch to de-escalate Sino-American tariff tension.

Jacob Miramar

2019-10-01 11:33:00 Tuesday ET

The Trump administration postpones increasing 25% to 30% tariffs on $250 billion Chinese imports after China extends an olive branch to de-escalate Sino-American tariff tension.

The Trump administration postpones increasing 25% to 30% tariffs on $250 billion Chinese imports after China extends an olive branch to de-escalate Sino-Ame

+See More

President Trump meets the CEOs of tech titans such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

John Fourier

2017-06-15 07:32:00 Thursday ET

President Trump meets the CEOs of tech titans such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

President Donald Trump has discussed with the CEOs of large multinational corporations such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. This discussion include

+See More