Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–227 of 227 posts

Re: U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

#221

Post by bijowo1676 »

ReptileMan wrote: post #218
bijowo1676 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if other people stop accepting your printed currency, it quickly turns into Weimar or Zimbabwe

USA is vast and endowed with resources enough to be self sufficient. And US citizens will always accept dollars by law.

US is running a more than a Trillion dollar trade deficit, what do you think happens when other countries will demand something real, like Gold, instead of freshly printed dollar?

does US have a trillion dollar worth of Gold reserves every year?

Re: U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

#222

Post by otterley »

bijowo1676 wrote: post #221
ReptileMan wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA is vast and endowed with resources enough to be self sufficient. And US citizens will always accept dollars by law.

US is running a more than a Trillion dollar trade deficit, what do you think happens when other countries will demand something real, like Gold, instead of freshly printed dollar? does US have a trillion dollar worth of Gold reserves every year?

You’re confusing trade deficits with budget deficits. These are not the same thing. Bond sales pay for budget deficits. They have no bearing (heh) whatsoever on trade deficits.

You can end a budget deficit by simply not spending as much from the public purse. You cannot end a trade deficit without restricting freedom of trade.

Re: U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

#223

Post by DoesntMatter22 »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #189
DoesntMatter22 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference? Everyone involved has been completely reckless with the debt. You think a democrat will somehow stop spending? Both parties are super happy to drive the car off the cliff

Well, the last president to steer the car away from the cliff came from one party, the other is currently mashing the accelerator toward it. And that is without considering things like invading Iraq and Afghanistan, creating the global financial crisis, or turning on the money printer at the start of covid. If you look at this information and say, "no difference" I don't think anyone here can help you.

Almost all of Bill Clinton's policies were to the RIGHT of Trump, so I'm not sure what you are saying exactly. Biden created the most debt in 1 term of any president ever.

You can't really compare one party from 27 years ago to today realistically.

Re: U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

#224

Post by ReptileMan »

bijowo1676 wrote: post #221
ReptileMan wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA is vast and endowed with resources enough to be self sufficient. And US citizens will always accept dollars by law.

US is running a more than a Trillion dollar trade deficit, what do you think happens when other countries will demand something real, like Gold, instead of freshly printed dollar? does US have a trillion dollar worth of Gold reserves every year?

Then US will just start making the things themselves and not import. Unlike Japan - for USA imports are optional.

Re: U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

#225

Post by mortos »

verzali wrote: post #142
skeledrew wrote: post #103

And who's going to hold the US responsible for repayment? Way I see it, US has the power to just tell any creditor that they won't be repaying, whether through structuring it as some economic package or just straight up saying go suck it. The former's been done before (1933); maybe eventually we'll see the latter, if a nation has the balls to ask. And talking about it is pretty pointless, like talking about how wet y…

So what happens when people stop lending money? No more military spending? No more social security? Massive tax rises? Hyper-inflation?

Social security is entirely funded through FICA taxes on payroll. Take a look at your paycheck. Legally money for social security cannot come from debt.

Re: U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

#226

Post by mortos »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #41
0xy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The spending floodgate cannot be turned off or reduced, only directed towards the current admin's pet projects and away from the previous admin's pet projects. This is true for both parties.

The “spending floodgates” have not materially changed direction in any of the last four administrations. Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, debt service and the military. Besides those five factors everything else is only a quarter of national spending and I think you will find if you look that those other categories don’t move around from admin to admin as much as you might think either.

Except social security funding does not come from debt and legally it cannot. It has never contributed to debt.

Re: U.S. Debt Hits $40T as America's Borrowing Binge Continues

#227

Post by otterley »

ReptileMan wrote: post #224
bijowo1676 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US is running a more than a Trillion dollar trade deficit, what do you think happens when other countries will demand something real, like Gold, instead of freshly printed dollar? does US have a trillion dollar worth of Gold reserves every year?

Then US will just start making the things themselves and not import. Unlike Japan - for USA imports are optional.

Not so. We don’t have the capital investment or labor pool needed to replace China as a source of many goods, especially high tech goods, and it would take a very, very long time to catch up at this point, if we ever could.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/apple-iphone-us-manuf...

Fantasies of USA autarky are just that.

Post reply on HN