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US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

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Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#91

Post by OgsyedIE »

jbm wrote: post #84
OgsyedIE wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's said on Fox Business today that on the basis of whatever agreements have been made in Alaska the US now considers the public and private holdings of its European allies + Japan to be part of an American sovereign wealth fund that can be expropriated whenever some cash is needed. Either he's lying about that or he has guaranteed a position as Trump's number one favourite after Lighthizer.

I do not know why you are being downvoted as this is something I heard too and is quite serious. > Other countries, in essence, are providing us with a sovereign wealth fund,” he told commentator Larry Kudlow, himself a top economic adviser in the first Trump term. “We have these agreements in place where the Japanese, the Koreans and to some extent the Europeans will invest in companies and industries that we direct…

Yeah, the core becomes the new periphery. Unless a significant rebellion in Europe, freight supply chain collapse or war with China happens, the existing payment infrastructure will eventually become colonial clearinghouses and governors-general will be appointed over the territories. If nothing interrupts it it'll probably take up to ten years for a full implementation of new policing structures.

Freedom-minded technology orgs like Wikimedia Foundation, Packet Clearing House, Internet Archive, ISOC, the EFF and the Free Software Foundation will not have anywhere to go to escape the net.

Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#92

Post by FridayoLeary »

simonsarris wrote: post #89

The amount of snarky comments here is truly insane. Flippant stuff used to be downvoted/shadowed immediately on HN, now it seems to be the median in some political threads. This started changing around 2019 but it's really accelerated lately.

It's a bit disappointing. This is HN, and this is actually important and interesting. It's a shame this thread is just a group therapy session of people blaming Trump for everything bad that's ever happened.

Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#94

Post by FridayoLeary »

epolanski wrote: post #41
mindslight wrote: post #9

I'm sure there were a lot of naive people who voted for the Republican party for their first time because something from Trump's word salad resonated with them, and they are now finding out what that Party is actually about. Surprise! All that whining about the debt was total kayfabe. Don't say we didn't try to warn you.

The political discourse globally has turned into a giant "us vs them". I'm Polish/Italian and in my countries it's similar to USA, we've just voted a populist troll as a president not because we like him but "because he's not one of those we despise". Marketing, data scientists and strategist have effectively manipulated public opinion into further polarization.

This entire thread is a good example of the kind of rhetoric that led us there.

Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#95

Post by treetalker »

gausswho wrote: post #10
tencentshill wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current treasury head is Scott Bessent, previously of Soros Fund Management and Key Square Group. He's far too qualified to be part of this administration. Expect him gone soon.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#96

Post by treetalker »

Folks, folks, please: If you keep focusing on figuring out what the facts are, and on using government data to do it, two things are going to happen. First, this post will be flagged into oblivion. And second, if the Administration doesn't succeed in firing everyone at the St. Louis Fed and installing others who will report data it likes better, it will enter an executive order to take over Hacker News.

Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#97

Post by mandeepj »

tencentshill wrote: post #7
bradhe wrote: post #5

Reported. It'll be amended soon after the statisticians get fired and yes-men get put in.

Current treasury head is Scott Bessent, previously of Soros Fund Management and Key Square Group. He's far too qualified to be part of this administration. Expect him gone soon.

> He's far too qualified to be part of this administration

Is he using his qualifications, though, or, for real, does he have any? I thought he'd be the sane and reasonable voice in this otherwise incompetent administration. But, he's just another yes-man.

Have you listened to his Senate hearing? He couldn't give any concrete response. Well, he wrote a wallstreet journal article to kiss T's as* and openly admire Tariffs and tax cuts to get his job. While earlier tax cuts and the big ugly bill collectively added $8T to the national debt.

Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#98

Post by duxup »

Freedom2 wrote: post #72
duxup wrote: post #3

I'm mildly surprised they were allowed to report this.

Do you mind explaining what you mean? I believe some smart HN commenters here stated that this administration would be the most transparent one ever, so I'm not entirely sure where the surprise would come from!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/business/trump-bls-firing...

Re: US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports

#100

Post by gruez »

Terr_ wrote: post #6

For the visually-inclined, a graph of debt as a proportion of GDP [0]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDGDPA188S Of course, this doesn't show projections for what the future debt will become after the Republican's "BBB" package from a few months ago. [0] Yes, I know GDP is a flawed measure, but as long as its flaws are consistent over the years it is useful for scaling.

>Of course, this doesn't show projections for what the future debt will become after the Republican's "BBB" package from a few months ago.

https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20250705_FBC...

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