Chris Belyea

This chart should be the biggest political scandal in American history. Nothing else comes close. Post-Covid, federal debt as a percentage of GDP is at record levels. Higher than it was even during WW2. This represents a massive transfer of wealth from our kids to ourselves. We are robbing their generation of economic opportunity to pay for our own discretionary spending and public-sector consumption. And for what? We're not actually investing the money in anything that will generate returns or create opportunity for them. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our education system is a joke, and our military preparedness is far from where it needs to be. As bad as this may be now, it only gets worse in the future. 10 years from now, debt / GDP crosses 130%. 20 years from now, it crosses 160%. In 30 years? Close to 200%. If you think that this is the fault of just one side of the political spectrum, you're sadly mistaken. After WW2, *every* US president reduced this ratio—even Mr. Stagfaltion himself, Jimmy Carter, under whose administration the ratio decreased to a post-war low of 31%. From there, though, it was all downhill. With the exception of Bill Clinton, every president of my lifetime has increased debt / GDP. Massively. Under Reagan, it grew from 31% to 51%. Under George W. Bush, it grew from 55% to 82%. Don't even get me started on Obama, who allowed it to increase to above 100% for the first time since the Roosevelt administration. Trump? He let it grow to 105% even before Covid, and 126% during Covid. And it's not like we can count on Biden to do anything helpful here. I don't know what the solution here is. I doubt we can grow our way out of this problem, and we certainly don't have the political willpower to cut our way to a more sustainable level. Does this leave debasing the dollar and letting inflation run rampant, so that every dollar of debt requires less purchasing power to service? I shudder at the consequences of that. All I know is, I'm furious about this. And you should be too.