So in the UK the tories and media keep saying the national debt is the highest its been since the ww2 (which is true of pretty much any year since the 80s). And that we need to raise taxes, tighten our belts etc to pay back what we borrowed to get us thru the pandemic.
Now I know this kind of treating a countries finances like household finances and talking about national debt like its credit card debt is disingenuous and just used as a way to justify squeezing people more than they are already.
But what I don't know with enough authority to be able to talk to people about it is why this is the case? How is national debt different and wtf is it? Who do we owe it to and do we even need to pay it back etc?
Ofc I know the whole thing is bullshit anyway any only exists to preserve the current power structure but let's leave that for now.
Be good to hear thoughts from someone who knows things.
beyond all the deficit shit, I think it's a feature of the global economy that a nation which exists at a trade deficit will naturally incur debt to their trading partner.
I think this has to do with currency valuation. like china sells us shit, chinese firms are sitting on mountains of accumulated capital in dollars. because they cant invest in china with dollars, or convert their stockpiles of capital all at once, they invest in bonds and other securities.
Folks like yanis varoufakis have written extensively about how america and western europe have maintained their dominance over the world despite no longer producing the world's goods. we essentially work as a vacuum cleaner. sucking up the world's capital and creating an empire of finance.
this system is like anti-mercantilism, nations dont compete to accumulate their own capital, they compete to accumulate each others capital as well. and how? BY MUNCHING