National Debt Has Soared Under Trump

Rolling Stone: “You probably missed an obscure but important milestone our country hit last week: America’s debt passed 100 percent of our gross domestic product.”

“So what, you say? That sounds boring and technical. It’s actually really fucking important. It means that America’s accumulated debt — our impulse to borrow from other people to pay for the things we want and need — is now larger than the total size of the American economy. It shouldn’t take an economist to recognize this as bad and definitionally unsustainable.”

“The last time our deficit passed 100 percent of GDP, it was World War II. But when countries pass this milestone in ordinary times, it is a formula for decline that has accompanied the fall of republics and empires alike.”