Thursday, August 04, 2011

No Good News Here

US borrowing tops 100% of GDP: Treasury

We can't say that we didn't see this one coming. We can argue all we want about different presidents that have raised the debt ceiling and how many times that they did so, but the fact is that debt as a percentage of GDP has not been this high since the post World War II years. That's pretty staggering. That's what you might call a "grim milestone".

There are those who will tell you that this is nothing to worry about and doing so is tantamount to "fear mongering". It is worth worrying about, and it's not fear mongering.

In my view, the problem isn't that we're here; it's that there's no clear way out. The economy is growing at an anemic rate, so we're not going to grow our way out any time soon. The vaunted "debt deal" really does little in the long term, especially when the administration's answer to everything is to spend more.

Will it get worse? Likely.

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