Can We Really ‘Grow Our Way Out Of’ $40 Trillion in National Debt? Why One Economist Says ‘The US Has No Chance.’
Can We Really ‘Grow Our Way Out Of’ $40 Trillion in National Debt? Why One Economist Says ‘The US Has No Chance.’
Source: Barchart
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DW NOTE
The US federal debt compounds at $1.9 trillion annually while GDP growth runs 2–3%. The arithmetic doesn't work — you cannot grow faster than you borrow when the borrowing itself inflates the growth figure. Every percentage point of that GDP includes hundreds of billions in deficit spending, which means the denominator in the debt-to-GDP ratio is partially fictitious. The economist is correct.