Get Ready for America’s New $29 Trillion in Debt
Nearly all superpowers see the world this way: “We’re number one in the world, therefore we no longer have to be fiscally prudent.” France, the British Empire, and today the United States, all viewed the world this way.
In the US, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently published its own projections for America’s grim public finances. Bear in mind that US debt is already $19+ trillion and climbing. The CBO sees at least another $10 trillion in debt in the coming years, and projects that the US budget deficit will increase every single year.
The US government’s spending growth is far outpacing US economic growth. Yet like nearly every major superpower before, the US government is completely oblivious to its own insolvency. With each passing year, as they ignore the problem, they make things worse.
The terminal fiscal decline of the world’s most dominant superpower is one of the biggest trends of our time. This isn’t some wild conspiracy theory, or an opaque idea that could take decades to play out.
The CBO is telling us how deep the fiscal consequences are over the next several years. This comes on the heels of the recently published Social Security annual report, which shows that the entire program is rapidly running out of money.
And, of course, there are the US Treasury’s annual financial statements, which state that the US government is bankrupt—today.
There are two ways to look at this. First is what most people are going to do: Nothing. Second is that maybe there will be some consequences when reality catches up, whether that day is tomorrow or years in the future.
We can already see many of these consequences. Civil Asset Forfeiture (government confiscation of private property at gunpoint without due process) is at alarming levels. Capital controls are rising around the world. There’s talk of banning physical cash, and even wealth taxes.
These aren’t things that fiscally strong, solvent governments do. In light of so much obvious data, are you really willing to bet everything that your politicians can fix the unfixable?
