Does our country's debt of $18T worry you?

[bentley]

I'll stay away from the politics, because all of our elected officials share the blame,....but..... Does our huge national debt have you concerned? $18 trillion and climbing....that's hard to wrap my brain around. There's a couple of my few remaining brain cells that think..."this can't continue,....soon, our economy is going to collapse". And then there is this huge racial divide and people talking about the coming race wars, and/or civil war, and the increasing police state we live in, where civil liberties aren't valued much. And then there's some of the ugly things happening around the globe....just pick a spot.
I don't usually pay much attention to the extremists on either end, but dang....this is getting ugly.
So, do you think the economy will collapse? In your lifetime?

It's both fascinating and scary to watch this play out. Especially when we don't know how it might impact us and our families.

Thoughts?

Okay....just venting a little.

 

[HFWR]

Does our countries debt of $18T worry you?

N B 4 Porky...

Plenty concerned, but I honestly don't think things are any worse than they were in the past, all things considered.

Most of that stuff, such as it exists, didn't just pop up yesterday, and those beating the drum the loudest have an agenda, and/or are trying to sell you something...

Edited to add, I'm more worried about unfunded liabilities, but I'll likely have shed my mortal coil by then...


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[SumDay]

I try not to worry about things I have no control over. I don't alwys do a very good job of sticking to that, but the older I get, the easier it seems to be. Really, I feel like the only input I have on the deficit is to vote, and that I do. My worrying isn't going to fix congress, unfortunately.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

Net worth $123.8 Trillion. Debt $18 Trillion. Nah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_position_of_the_United_States

 

[Fermion]

Considering that the government is financing the debt with negative real interest rates I would say they are pure genius.

 

[Sunset]

They owe some of that to me, so they better not default.

But if it became too much they could just wipe it out to zero, and default like Russia, Venezuela, etc have done in the past. After all Bankruptcy is your right !

 

[Senator]

Not worried in the least. We can print the money to eliminate the debt.

Other countries are printing money faster than we can, so we are at best staying even.

 

[Major Tom]

bentley - I don't want to be dismissive of the current challenges facing us as a society, or to the delicate balance of international relations, but there have been many times in the past when our world seemed like a very uncertain and scary place - and we are still here. Just a few decades ago, we were building nuclear fallout shelters in our backyards!

Oh - and what the others said about the national debt.

 

[unclemick]

History. Our debt/GDP ratio has been worse. And our rate of change of said ratio is good compared to other historical periods.

The best of times if you are a financial cat - or an ER.

heh heh heh - also am a big fan of the OWL school of economics as espoused here in Kansas City at UMKC. I need a fat cat symbol here -

Hint: Dr Stephanie Kelton

 

[2B]

I try not to worry about things I have no control over. I don't alwys do a very good job of sticking to that, but the older I get, the easier it seems to be. Really, I feel like the only input I have on the deficit is to vote, and that I do. My worrying isn't going to fix congress, unfortunately.

+1 I would have included the White House with Congress in the cartoon below.

 

[prototype]

I used to think about it a lot, but the older I get the less I seem to think/worry about it.

 

[HF63]

Considering that the government is financing the debt with negative real interest rates I would say they are pure genius.


We are probably like Japan, 20 years later we might still have negative interest rate.

 

[Willers]

Considering that the government is financing the debt with negative real interest rates I would say they are pure genius.

+1


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[donheff]

Everything I read convinces me that we can easily accommodate the degree of debt we have incurred. The gross amount seems intuitively alarming but I think that is largely due to viewing it as if we were talking about household debt rather than sovereign debt. They are two different animals. More than anything else I worry that debt fear mongering prevents us from making the investment needed to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.

 

[GreenER]

Everything I read convinces me that we can easily accommodate the degree of debt we have incurred. The gross amount seems intuitively alarming but I think that is largely due to viewing it as if we were talking about household debt rather than sovereign debt. They are two different animals. More than anything else I worry that debt fear mongering prevents us from making the investment needed to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.

+1

It is too bad that we are missing out on this opportunity to rebuild infrastructure while interests rates are low. It would also help with the employment situation. I think it would even help with the feelings of unrest if more people had meaningful work to do and we would be better situated to grow in the future.

 

[Htown Harry]

Reviewing the list, I'm reminded that there are powerful interests - found in politics and the media, in particular - that believe their own fortunes will be increased by keeping their follower's mood somewhere in the M-X range.

 

[marko]

Crisis fatigue here.
As long as the lights stay on and the checks keep coming in: don't care.

 

[Texas Proud]

It bothers me when I think about it.... but, I do not think about it that often...


The debt allows us to consume more than we can afford in real time... I would say in olden times deficit spending was more of a mortgage on real assets.... bridges, roads, other infrastructure.... but it now seems to be for just regular spending...

 

[ripper1]

I'll stay away from the politics, because all of our elected officials share the blame,....but..... Does our huge national debt have you concerned? $18 trillion and climbing....that's hard to wrap my brain around. There's a couple of my few remaining brain cells that think..."this can't continue,....soon, our economy is going to collapse". And then there is this huge racial divide and people talking about the coming race wars, and/or civil war, and the increasing police state we live in, where civil liberties aren't valued much. And then there's some of the ugly things happening around the globe....just pick a spot.
I don't usually pay much attention to the extremists on either end, but dang....this is getting ugly.
So, do you think the economy will collapse? In your lifetime?

It's both fascinating and scary to watch this play out. Especially when we don't know how it might impact us and our families.

Thoughts?

Okay....just venting a little.

Well, they might have to change the Gettysburg address to.....FOR THE CORPORATION BY THE CORPORATION.

 

[ripper1]

Well, they might have to change the Gettysburg address to.....FOR THE CORPORATION BY THE CORPORATION.

Sorry, don't believe this comment belongs in here.

 

[Alan]

Thanks folks, we are done here.