Great job, Casey. Think lawmakers have the courage to do something about this, other than kicking the problem down to the next generation? or, wait, maybe give billionaires another tax break!
Which as you could guess is a prelude to a "but." Which in this case is that your graph of the federal debt is misleading, as is the part about how the fault wasn't Clinton.
I'm not a partisan, but the Clinton administration took serious political risks and reduced the debt held by the public between Q1 of 1997 and his departure from office. In nominal terms, it declined 16% over that period. Relative to our income --- GDP --- the fall was even more dramatic, crashing from 48% in Q1 1994 to 33% when he left office.
We'll never know what would have happened had his fiscal policy been continued. There's going to be a small recession in 2001 and (probably) a large one in 2008, and it's certainly possible that we would have gone to war. But in all seriousness, the Clinton Administration is in a category of it's own. It's not only not Clinton's fault, he's the last President to bear the costs of getting a handle on the problem.
(I'd give Obama a mulligan, perhaps, but not Dubya or Trump and certainly not Biden.)
Great analysis! But tariffs will magically pay this down, and fast! Right??
Thanks as always. I knew it was ugly but there you put it in writing in a simple way.
Thank the Gods that China 🇨🇳 our supposed #1 Rival is NOT a Warmonger as we owe them, the 3rd LARGEST TRANCHE of 💰after our 2 Allies.
Don’t bite the hand(s) that loan you money via BUYING YOUR BONDS and other Financial Instruments 👍
Super helpful, thanks!
Great job, Casey. Think lawmakers have the courage to do something about this, other than kicking the problem down to the next generation? or, wait, maybe give billionaires another tax break!
I like your blog!
Which as you could guess is a prelude to a "but." Which in this case is that your graph of the federal debt is misleading, as is the part about how the fault wasn't Clinton.
I'm not a partisan, but the Clinton administration took serious political risks and reduced the debt held by the public between Q1 of 1997 and his departure from office. In nominal terms, it declined 16% over that period. Relative to our income --- GDP --- the fall was even more dramatic, crashing from 48% in Q1 1994 to 33% when he left office.
We'll never know what would have happened had his fiscal policy been continued. There's going to be a small recession in 2001 and (probably) a large one in 2008, and it's certainly possible that we would have gone to war. But in all seriousness, the Clinton Administration is in a category of it's own. It's not only not Clinton's fault, he's the last President to bear the costs of getting a handle on the problem.
(I'd give Obama a mulligan, perhaps, but not Dubya or Trump and certainly not Biden.)
Great explainer. But I'm so sick of winning.
Very Helpful !