EVERY FUCKING TIME.
I tuned into NPR for like 20 mins earlier and they also brought up the deficit coincidently
https://twitter.com/JimmyJazz1968/status/1346647246360645632?s=20
EVERY FUCKING TIME.
I tuned into NPR for like 20 mins earlier and they also brought up the deficit coincidently
https://twitter.com/JimmyJazz1968/status/1346647246360645632?s=20
who tf is this money even owed to?? sorry i don't understand basic economics (i know it's all made up bullshit but what actually is the made up bullshit?)
Part of US economic policy entails making sure the USD is the trade/reserve currency for nations around the world (it is achieved partly through running a trade deficit, which conservatives pretend to worry so much about).
But, it turns out there are relatively few things you can do with USD when you’re outside the US. You can dump it into the stonks market (eg, SoftBank/UAE petrodollars). Or you can buy US bonds.
At least, this was my take away from reading some of Michael Hudson’s Superimperialism. Essentially, the system is working 100% as intended for the US bourgeoise. Maybe some members of the lumpenbourgeoise don’t understand, or maybe they need to pretend not to in order to achieve some goals
Enough is owed to China to justify trying to destabilise it
China only owns a small percentage of the debt. The majority is owned by US individuals and institutions.
If China wanted to sell of its treasuries immediately it could and the world would yawn. It would simply be exchanging an interest bearing bond for non-interest bearing currency... which is stupid, which is why they don't do it.
But the debt is a convenient scary story rich people tell to the poor, so please remember to be afraid instead of wondering why Trump inflated the DoD budget over his term multiple times and nobody blinked, but there's no money for health care during a freaking pandemic.
To the US that's enough.
A huge amount of it is owed to other parts of the government
The federal deficit = savings bonds.
It's as simple as that.
Savings bonds are mostly owned by US individuals and institutions who want a risk-free return. Some are owned by foreign individuals and institutions who want a risk-free return denominated in dollars.
The bigger the deficit is, the more savings there are in the hands of the private sector. Woo scary.
To pay off those savings bonds, the federal government issues dollars. It pays off a dollar denominated debt instrument that pays interest with dollars that don't pay interest. It does this by changing the numbers in your savings account. There's no actual printing. If this kind of seems like a scam, it is. The point is the government can't run out of money, it is the printing press.
Theoretically, if the deficit is high enough we might get inflation. We haven't had much inflation in decades and the deficit is plenty high already, but basically, that's the excuse the 1% give when they spend all the money on toys for themselves and need to pretend there's nothing left for basic life essential needs.