U.S. Government already projects $1T deficit every year for the next 10 years [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

U.S. Government already projects $1T deficit every year for the next 10 years [pdf]

cbo.gov

32 pointslettergram18 comments

Funded by taking on debt. Using new debt to pay back old investors. I think there is a name for this strategy?

Fonzi Scheme

Aaayyyyy!

Smart. Why wouldn’t you do this in sustainable amounts. For example many Americans don’t pay off their mortgage as the money is better put in investments long term. Why should our country be any different?

Why shouldn’t the government borrow money at low rates to spend in ways that raises gdp generating new tax revenues that are higher than the interest paid for said loan?

Because gov spending is not limited to only that which has a positive economic return. If it was we wouldn't have this problem.

They may not pay it off, but they have to at least make monthly payments to pay the principal down. For good reasons no bank is going to give a mortgage holder an ever-increasing line of credit on a home mortgage.

But only because the mortgage holder is going to die one day. That's the big difference between you and a corporation or nation. The country can revolve its debt forever.

There is a limit to how much debt it can support, but it's determined only by that country's productivity and tax structure. As long as it can pay the interest, it can keep growing its debt.

Eventually that reaches equilibrium, but there's no reason for any particular $BIGNUM to be the equilibrium point. It's currently around 10% of all spending, which strikes me as a large but not unsupportable number.

You can get an interest only mortgage.

It's more like the wealthy's "buy, borrow, die" strategy [1] without the cumbersome "buy" part. Japan's debt to gdp is almost 200% as the population decline continues. Confidence won’t evaporate until the market determines productivity can’t meet the yield bought. Somebody is going to be left holding the bag, but it ain’t anybody investing today.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pBPZMUcsh0

Isn't the biggest investor in Japanese debt the Bank of Japan?

Yes https://www.statista.com/statistics/756192/japanese-governme...

Refinancing old expensive debt with cheaper debt, while waiting for inflation and economic growth to devalue the priciple. It standard and pretty sensible.

In french we call it "une cavalerie". I did not find an english word.

Ponzi Scheme!

We should start issuing perpetuities at extremely low rates to take advantage of this while it lasts.

But what's even better than a perpeptuity is a zero coupon perpetuity.

We could even make a small, green, square certificate and put a president's head on it.

It would still have to show up as debt on the government's balance sheet.

Austria issued 100 year bonds.

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