Today, August 17, 2017, the Pew Research Center published 5 Facts About the National Debt. In the work, writer Drew DeSilver alludes to the forthcoming raise the debt ceiling showdown in Congress.
So what is the true picture of Congress' debt? Once current dollars get normalized into True Dollars™, the only effective way to discount for inflation under a fiduciary monetary system, Congress' debt has been falling since it hit a peak on September 30th, 2010. Since the True Dollar peak, Congress' debt has fallen 30.4%
The current debt of Congress as priced in True Dollars™ has fallen 16.5% below what it was at True Peak GDP.
However, Congress' debt is still 73.5% above the long run average.
Debt To GDP
The Debt-to-GDP ratio of Congress' debt is ugly.
The ratio as calculated in True Dollars has stayed within a range since 2012.
And the ratio to the long run average since 1959 is quite high, still hovering over double the average.
CONGRESS SPENDING AND GDP
It is dogma by academicians in economics that government spending is a boon. They believe when an economy flounders, lawgivers simply should step in, run deficits and magically, the economy will grow.
They have been preaching such foolery since John Maynard Keynes came up with the rhetoric to justify excessive government spending.
They have been preaching such foolery since John Maynard Keynes came up with the rhetoric to justify excessive government spending.
Yet, as you can see, when the Debt-to-GDP ratio becomes excessive, the economy falters.
The U.S. economy consistently grew from Kennedy until Reagan. Under the excessive debt growth during the Reagan and Bush senior years, in True Dollars, the only measure that counts, the U.S. economy shrank.
During the Clinton years, the Debt-to-GDP ratio fell 17.1%. And GDP boomed during the Clinton years, mostly owing to the massive commercial debt during the Greenspan years of the Greenspan-Bernanke Great Inflation, the greatest credit bubble in the history of mankind.
During the 16 years of Bush junior and Obama, the economy barely grew under Bush and decidedly shrank during the Greatest Depression of the Obama years.
Gab It
