this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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United States | News & Politics
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So, Americans can expect more austerity policies, and higher interest rates.
That's because the dollar is declining as the world reserve currency as a result of the US declining as the hegemon .
The debt will only become relevant after the petrodollar is dead and after countries stop pegging their own currency to the dollar and after SWIFT becomes irrelevant and all the other things that prop up the dollar, and we've already long passed the point where the debt could be reduced enough to save the dollar after it loses its status. The high global demand for dollars meant the debt was irrelevant, but now that demand is on the decline the dollar is fucked and it can not be saved.
Exactly, US has been able to finance its debt at the expense of the rest of the world up to now, and those days are quickly coming to an end.
I'd add that this debt is relevant in one important way already.
The state borrows from the bourgeoisie. Partly to pay the interest on previous loans given by the same bourgeoisie. Partly to pay for contracts with that same bourgeoisie. Partly to pay to everyone else in general, who then use this money to pay for things at the stores, etc, owned, again, by the same bourgeoisie.
So the same people who lend the government money end up either taking, being given, or otherwise receiving that very same money. But now the government owes them, rather than being owed. No wonder the bourgeoisie has the cash on hand to lend it to the government.
In the meantime, the bourgeoisie uses that money to buy assets, inflating prices. Inequality gets greater, and the life of the ordinary person is made that much harder, more oppressive.
In what sense does that follow from what you posted? Did you mean to post a different article?
I see you don't understand the implications of national debt.
I do; do you?
But of course what I’m actually doing is showing that posting pure statistical data, and then using it to make strong unsourced unattributed assertions, is very silly. If you have something to say, say it and post proof for it. A screenshot of number going up is meaningless.
Except it's not numbers going up, it's statistical data about the US debt, such as the titled implied. In neoliberal right wing governments such as the one in the US, the way they fight this kind of scenarios is austerity policies such as not raising wages as inflation goes up, the lowering of the living standards of the working class, and so on, instead of making the actual culprits pay the price.
This and the current trend of dedolarisation, plus the recent failure of China buying US debt, and a lot of other factors could indicate some bad times for the US economy.
I think it would have been more useful if you would have asked about the consequences of unsustainable debt or some other thing related to economy, since none of us are experts probably, were we could have created a meaningful debate, rather than acting arrogantly. The title says what the body shows, what you can get from that data depends on your field of study, but statistical data is not useless numbers going up, even in something like Cookie Clicker mean things that can be interpreted.
None of what you said is supported by either the screenshot itself or anything else that's been cited by the OP (or anyone else in this thread). Even calling it "statistical data about the US debt" is overselling it since it's literally just a screenshot and a link to a paper that (presumably?) the screenshot came from.
Anything you mentioned would be interesting to talk about, perhaps with sources? Interviews? Anything? But no; instead we're being told that the screenshot is sufficient context to ground any assertion we care to make.
My point is the post is vacuous and any discussion around it unmoored from anything objective or of interest.
This is a statistics website of the US treasury
The only silly thing here is claiming that the huge amount of debt increase is not indicative of anything. I recommend reading up on what this has meant historically to understand what to expect going forward.
Why not post that, instead of posting screenshots of numbers and claiming it means whatever you want it to?
You're saying it as though tremendous amounts of debt have the possibility of being interpreted as a positive thing
The majority of people who own American debt are Americans who hold bonds. National bonds are a mutually beneficial financial instrument and not at all the same kind of debt that a normal person deals with.
To be 100% clear: even if the U.S. Federal government had a massive surplus of money in their pockets, they would still probably issue bonds because of how good a deal they are. Why wouldn't they take money at a stupid-low interest rate from Americans? Is it really better for the country if that money's just sitting around gathering interest in some wealthy person's bank account?
The vast majority of bonds aren't owned by the average US citizen, though.
Not to mention what the US budget is primarily diverted towards.
What's your point? The bourgeois investor class isn't going to foreclose on the very government which facilitates the status quo, but let's ignore that for the sake of argument. Please enlighten me of a scenario wherein the wealthy elite somehow sabotage the U.S. Federal government by buying more bonds.
You wanted a justification for taking on debt, that's what I gave. I don't know what you expect me to do about a statement that basically boils down to "budget not good". Government budget allocations & spending are inefficient in absolute terms -- big surprise -- but what's your thesis?
Most domestic bond ownership is within the hands of the bourgeoisie, though.
I'm not saying "no country should ever take on any debt." I'm saying the US debt is excessive, and the money is being wasted on furthering the aims of the bourgeoisie, primarily through funneling that money into continuously arming the military and the police.
Surely this money could at least be used to increase funding for necessary services like education and healthcare, but it's not.
And "inefficient" is a mild way to put it, especially when looking at the DoD
I don't disagree with any point you make here, but these are all evils which exist independent of whether or not they are funded by debt, taxes, or some other alchemy, right? The policies wouldn't be worth it even if the government got to paid to implement them.
Is there a way of getting a surplus without having a debt?
This is not a rhetorical question.
Depends on how you define debt, I suppose?
Under a strict definition like "money that you've explicitly agreed to repay to a lender in the future", the answer is simple: "take money without agreeing to repay it" (e.g.: taxes, liquidations, nationalization).
Because this is a world news community as opposed to historical literacy community.
In what sense is a screenshot with scribbles on it "world news?"
To be fair the web site does a terrible job at presenting the information since it only gives you a couple of of datasets at a time, so the screenshot makes it easier to see the difference. Although I agree that having the link in the URL field and the image on the body would have been better, I guess.
What would have been better is ... anything honestly. Any kind of interpretation or findings. Or, if that's asking too much, even a vague thesis statement.
This is definitional low quality and the OP should be embarrassed by it.
If you don't understand how US national debt going up by a trillion in a month is not world news, don't really know what else to tell you. I just love how you're sealioning here trying to act like you have a perfectly valid point to make.
I've made it perfectly clear what else you should be saying: literally anything. An interview? An article? A study? Is a screenshot truly the limit of what you can offer us in terms of world news?
I also have a perfectly valid point, and I believe I've made it, but since it seems to escape you:
Your submission quality is bad. Do better in the future.
Your only point appears to be that you don't seem to understand why this is significant. The fact that there is a lively discussion happening with people explaining the significance to you shows that the submission quality is just fine.
It's world news to people who know that when the US faces financial trouble some countries get carpet bombed and the rest of us get fucked over in other ways.
Bro you need to look in the mirror and realize you're not saying anything substantive besides
None of us have just landed here from outer space. This information means more than just the numbers presented because people who read it know varying degrees of the context. You might, for example, although I wouldn't understand the motivation, use this new data to re-interpret something that Vaush, if they speak about such topics, has said about political economy.