United States Federal Debt and Economic Effects
Matt Langenbahn
December 16th, 2014
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Fundamentals of Economics 5590 History of United States Federal Debt
The United States of America has carried some amount of federal debt every year since the country was founded. From this empirical evidence, it can be said that debt itself is not damaging to an economy. After all, the country has had periods of rapid growth and economic booms while carrying different amounts of debt. It is also plain to see that a very large amount a debt, an amount that could not ever be eliminated without unreasonably inflating the dollar, could have devastating effects. The US dollar is a fiat currency, which holds value only when holders of the currency have confidence in the issuing institution, in this case the US government. In the event the government could not repay its debts, the value of the currency would drop as people lose confidence. The effects on the US economy, households, businesses, trading partners and foreign governments would be disastrous and widespread.
For most of the United State’s history, the debt has been managed well enough to avoid disaster, after all we’re still using the dollar.
The capacity of the government to carry debt was considered by the founders of the country as the quote below illustrates:
"The United States debt, foreign and domestic, was the price of liberty. The faith of America has been repeatedly
In the book Hamilton’s Blessing, Gordon uses economic history and theory to explore the start, rise and decline of the United States debt. Gordon opens his book by stating that this country was born in debt, and this debt has become so high that concerned individuals no longer think of it. Throughout the book, he traces the history of the national debt dating back from 1791, when the central bank of the United States was created, up to modern days. The intellectual architect of this creation was Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary as well as a central figure who had a deep impact on the economic development of the United States. The title of the book clearly recalls Hamilton's statement that a national debt, "if not excessive,
This growth in national debt has blunt consequences on inflation, interest rates and growing economy. Foreign control of large amounts of government debt means that the taxes will have to be raised to repay debt and percentage owned to overseas governments which is not acceptable. Assuming that trade deficiency also exists it will lead to depreciation of dollar which effect its position as a reserve currency, and if during this process any new currency emerge as a replacement of reserve currency, higher interest rates will be required to sell the debt to foreign countries (Inflation). Raised interest rates have a negative impact on the economy and high accumulation of debts leads to high interest rates (Spending). Hence the economy suffers. This means that the funds for government programs like Social Security and Medicare are not enough (Economic Progress Under Obama). Another consequence of high national debt is the reduced flexibility in fiscal policy (Spending).
You may be asking yourself how america got in so much debt well it starts like this for example the capitol building ran out of light bulbs. The company selling them sells a 6 pack for five dollars, but since they are the government the lightbulb company charges them 30 dollars for it, but that's only 30 dollars compared to the 4 trillion dollar budget well add on buying overpriced paper, pens, pencils, tools, plans, ships, and
In a country that revolves around money, if the economy would fall, it could take the whole nation down with it. The United States is one of many countries built up by its power in the economical industry. Facing a national debt of $20 trillion now, America may not know its power
From the moment they become old enough to be aware that money is limited, young people today are taught to avoid getting into debt. Horror stories of payment defaults, exorbitant interest rates, and ruined credit are passed from generation to generation, and along with it, sentiments of disgust and panic toward the large and seemingly never-decreasing number that is the national debt of the United States of America. Yet, it cannot be said that all debt is bad; student loans taken as an investment in the future, or a mortgage on a house -- there are plenty of examples of how deficit spending can be a valuable practice, and the first Secretary of the Treasury was a strong proponent of that view when it came to government spending.
The U.S. national debt is currently $18 trillion dollars and it is rising fast. The national debt today is the highest the U.S. has ever seen. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he declared the U.S. should avoid going into debt. If the nation end up in a deficit, that the debtors were responsible for paying off the debt so that it doesn’t burden the future generations. Like the rest of this advice in his Farewell Address, the nation ignored it. The ideal goal right now should be to stop the debt from increasing anymore because it is impossible to stop the debt from increasing and expect to pay it off in this generation.
Currently, the United States owes approximately $19 trillion in National Debt. It is owed to Mutual funds, pension funds, foreign governments, foreign investors, American investors and many others. From the year 1959 to 2015, the United States debt has gone up by around 7554% from the debt in 1959 starting at $285 billion. The debt itself has increased by around 9 trillion since Barack Obama has taken the Presidential office in 2009. Everything has been done to increase national debt, but nothing has been made to reduce the national debt.
Many Americans today are aware that the United States is in debt, however, some may not realize by how much. Currently, the United States National Debt is up to 18 trillion dollars and is steadily increasing. This is a serious problem for the U.S., especially for millennials, who are going to be the ones living and dealing with the debt left behind for them. Increased spending, borrowing from China, and interest on the money borrowed are setting up our economy for an eventual crash, one that the upcoming generation may not be prepared for. Every dollar that accumulates into the debt will have to be repaid with interest at some point, making it harder to pay back. To gain a better understanding of how the U.S. dug itself into such a deep hole, one should start at the beginning of where the debt started.
We hear about the debt almost every day: news talks about it, politicians argue about it, even President Obama gives speeches on it. So what is the significance behind it? In this article I am going to explain briefly what the national debt is, how big it is, and what it has to do with us.
In the grandiose words of George Washington, we should “cherish public credit… [avoid] accumulation of debt”. Washington loathed debts, and did anything that he could to avoid debts. As you can observe in the current day, our debt can risen a huge amount over the last few centuries. On December 22nd, at 10:50 A.M, the United States was in debt by $19,944,078,298,000 and rising every second. For the US to be out of debt, each of the 325,166,983 citizens would need to pay $61,338 as of 10:52 A.M (12/22/16). This is insanity. Just 16 years ago, we only had $5.629 trillion in
The total United States national debt is now over 19 trillion dollars and our Congressional leadership shows no signs of accomplishing any significant changes to make the situation better. That 19 trillion equates to almost $59,000 for every citizen of the United Sates. Sound financial practice is to not spend more money than you earn and borrow only for emergencies. It appears our Congress is incapable of adhering to sound financial practices as in the last fifty years there have only been five years when the U.S. recorded a budget surplus. Between 2009 and 2012 the U.S. added 5.5 trillion dollars to its national debt.
Many investors believe that this means the United States will have problems repaying these loans in the future and will cause many economic problems in the future. The debt accumulated this much because of deficits in the national budget. These can be caused by new programs to help citizens or help the US economy. Tax cuts, military spending, and the economic stimulus package caused this national debt to skyrocket. On the USdebtclock.org website it shows our largest budget items are Medicare/Medicaid at $1 Trillion, Social Security at $886 Billion, defense/war at $583 Billion, income security at $303 Billion, net interest on debt at $224 Billion, and Federal pensions at $255 Billion.(usdebtclock1) These debts are large and spending on some of these programs must be cut.
This paper sought to answer the question whether Federal Debt is Harmful to the United States Economy. The paper examines and assesses the possible effect of high levels of debt on the United States in the context of the recent financial crisis. The analyses provides significant insights on understanding the adverse impact of national debt dynamics on medium and long term economic growth, with a special focus on the United States. This paper adopted a general theoretical model enhanced with a debt variable to address the possible issues of bias. A fixed effect panel regression was used to control factors of time and country-specific elements. Concerns of possible effect of low economic growth on increased levels of debt were addressed using
America has a very high debt amount of more the $19 trillion. This kind of debt builds up over a long period of time. Some of the reason America is in this kind of debt
The U.S. national debt is a serious problem. In order to become debt free, the U.S. government needs to make extreme changes to their budget; additionally, the U.S. population should also employ radical changes. Failure to rectify the National Debt will result in the destruction of American life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. A question to consider: how long can the United States keep borrowing money without providing reimbursement? Is the U.S. financing with no intent on paying back? What are the consequences of borrowing such large amounts of money? Thus far, the U.S. has borrowed trillions of dollars without “breaking the bank,” although not without cost.