What Happens When the Debt Hits the Fan?

Spoiler: it's bad.

Andrew Heaton | 4.14.2025 9:45 AM

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The national debt is at an all-time high (again). As if that isn't bad enough, for the last two decades, America's debt has grown faster than its economy.

So, should you worry?

Yes. Yes, you definitely should.

NEXT: Free Trade Expert Takes Down the Best Arguments for Tariffs

Comedy National Debt Debt Austerity Budget Deficit Deficits Budget Government Spending

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Don't look at me! (No longer muted!) 1 year ago

It’s only numbers on paper. Nothing to worry about.

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1. JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia) 1 year ago
  
  Audits bad. Whatever DOGE finds is fake. Trump needs to wait for congress. They are killing seniors. Subsidizing illegals is pure profit, import more.
  
  Think I got all the one true libertarians talking points in.
  
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  1. Longtobefree 1 year ago
    
    No income tax on sex work.
    You forgot the big one.
    
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    1. Eeyore 1 year ago
      
      I thought only the tip should be tax exempt.
      
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  2. But SkyNet is a Private Company 1 year ago
    
    We can’t just cut and slash without due consideration of long established processes that take decades
    
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  3. Stupid Government Tricks 1 year ago
    
    DOGE cuts are trivial. Trump wants to raise spending more than DOGE is cutting, and Trump refuses to discuss entitlements.
    
    Depending on DOGE and not cutting entitlements is like depending on a thong and not wearing a diaper.
    
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    1. BYODB 1 year ago
      
      Trump has no power over entitlements, and if he tried he would be slapped around by Congress and the SC so fast his head would spin. Frankly, that's as it should be.
      
      If you want a group of morons to discuss entitlement reform, you'd have to look to fuckwits like AOC since this is actually their ball and their game. If that makes your shudder since 'reform' to them is an ever increasing payout, you're starting to see where the problem comes from.
      
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      1. Stupid Government Tricks 1 year ago
        
        Trump has his bully pulpit, and he has declared many times he will not touch entitlements.
        
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        BYODB 1 year ago
        
        Of course he won't touch entitlements, he is incapable of doing so.
        
        Recall that Trump is not a Conservative, he is a Democrat from circa 1995. That may look conservative by todays measure, but it isn't.
        
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        Strawmancasmic, Town Drunk and Gay for Booze 1 year ago
        
        If he did that, he would be savage by the media. And it would have no effect. He’s going to do anything, it needs to be behind the scenes.
        
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Mother's Lament - (Sarcasian Meanister of Foreign Affairs) 1 year ago

In before Sarc shows up to demand government spending be cut while simultaneously shitting on DOGE.

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1. Dillinger 1 year ago
  
  democrats never did it and nobody complained so doing something now means you're a hypocrite.
  
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  1. Strawmancasmic, Town Drunk and Gay for Booze 1 year ago
    
    I found the Sarcbot software code…….
    
    10. Rant and rave about Republicans and Trump
    20. Go to 10
    
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    1. Dillinger 1 year ago
      
      lol I loved basic
      
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Longtobefree 1 year ago

Director's cut alternate ending:
Everybody yawns and no one cares.

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JFree 1 year ago

It doesn't matter much whether debt is private or public. It all comes from the same place (the banking system). It is all the same fungible thing (money). If anything, the primary function of government debt is to allow the banking system to leverage itself up to make private loans (ie create money).

What matters is whether that new money from creating loans is productive or not. One measure is change in debt over change in GDP. Not a very good measure but it does indicate what might be called the marginal productivity of debt over time. From the late 1940's when that marginal productivity of debt was roughly $1.00 - to now when the marginal productivity of debt is maybe 10-15c.

Every new dollar of debt in the 1940's created a dollars worth of value in a single year because the private sector was using debt to build houses and factories and those were all quickly productive. For the government - that was also an era where govt debt could build on that private productivity of debt - by building schools and highways and such.

For a few decades now, private debt has been used mostly to jack up prices of existing houses (or cash out refi them) or buy shares so that CEO stock options can be disguised from shareholders as non-dilutive. Not a surprise in that asset bubble environment there also are very few positive uses for govt to ADD to the debt. A 10c annual productivity increase on $1 of debt merely means that 5c is being transferred from Main St to Wall St and 5c is being fought over by everyone else. The economy is now financialized - and 'growth' is based on selling houses/shares/loans to each other and other financial/management/asset consulting.

We should be running surpluses. Govt does have a role in determining whether both private and public debt keeps growing even when it is no longer productive. Because govt debt is ALWAYS the underlying collateral for all dollar-based loans (aka MONEY) Draining debt - both private and public - from the system is what will return the price of money back to normal, real, productive levels. That starts with govt debt. Which will in turn change the way we make decisions. We have been living way beyond our means - private and public - for many many many decades.

Unfortunately that means it will likely require a multi-year recession (aka depression) to reset that debt cycle.

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Dillinger 1 year ago

hoping from the title it's set to the Circle Jerks song ...

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1. Dillinger 1 year ago
  
  if we give Greenland to Godzilla he may stop sacking Tokyo and New York
  
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BYODB 1 year ago

The national debt is at an all-time high (again).

This is true every day that passes. Each day that goes by is the highest debt America has ever seen.

At some point, the screaming and gnashing of teeth just becomes background noise I suppose.

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Sarah Palin's Buttplug - Jan 6 = 9/11 (same motive) 1 year ago

Fed Official Confirms Trump Tariff Bailout Is Ready Amid $30 Trillion Market ‘Panic’ Warning

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/04/14/top-fed-official-confirms-the-bank-is-ready-to-bail-out-trump/

Another Donnie bailout on the way?

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1. Sarah Palin's Buttplug - Jan 6 = 9/11 (same motive) 1 year ago
  
  04/14 update: JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon has predicted the Federal Reserve will be forced to step in and bail out the near-$30 trillion U.S. Treasury market following U.S. president Donald Trump’s campaign of rapid-fire global tariffs.
  
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  1. Mother's Lament - (Sarcasian Meanister of Foreign Affairs) 1 year ago
    
    Destroy the Fed. Also, the predictions of an elite establishment grifter and USAID heistman like Jamie Diamond are as honest as yours.
    
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sarcasmic 1 year ago

You didn't complain about the debt when Biden was president. You only pretend to be concerned because Trump is president. That makes you a hypocrite with TDS which means everything you say wrong.

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1. Bertram Guilfoyle 1 year ago
  
  At least biden respected the constitution.
  
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  1. Mickey Rat 1 year ago
    
    When? Where? How?
    
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    1. Bertram Guilfoyle 1 year ago
      
      I think it was the student loan forgiveness thing - that showed enormous reverence for the constitution.
      
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    2. JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia) 1 year ago
      
      sarcasmic 2 years ago
      Flag Comment
      Mute User
      Why wouldn't there be? Despite all his faults, at least Biden recognizes the Constitution. Can't say the same about Trump.
      
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2. Don't look at me! (No longer muted!) 1 year ago
  
  Facts changed!
  
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3. Mother's Lament - (Sarcasian Meanister of Foreign Affairs) 1 year ago
  
  That definitely makes Sarc a hypocrite with TDS anyway.
  
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Sometimes a Great Notion 1 year ago

Now I want a jet ski.

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1. Eeyore 1 year ago
  
  No love at all for the Sea-Doo.
  
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Uncle Jay 1 year ago

What happens when the debt hits the fan?

Cuba will look like paradise in comparison to the US.

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voluntaryist 1 year ago

If you voted, you supported the govt., the tax/spend/regulating until the collapse club, i.e., the powers that shouldn't have been authorized. Don't worry about them. They won't suffer, YOU will. And you are dragging me down with you, except I took precautions. So, you will pay more than I will, and I will not rub it in your face. I will point out you voted for your parasites. I will ask: "Are you still voting or have you grown up and self-governing?"

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