THE US PREDICTED A NATIONAL DEFAULT

The debt obligations of the United States are increasingly causing criticism of the actions of the authorities among American experts. Trying to maintain its foreign policy status as a leading country, the government continues to interfere in conflicts that are indifferent to the interests of ordinary Americans. The state is getting more and more bogged down in debt, risking becoming bankrupt.

This opinion was expressed by Doug Bandow in an article published by The American Conservative magazine. According to the author, who once worked as a special assistant to Ronald Reagan, the country's attempts to control world processes by dictating its will to other countries are ruining the American economy.

According to the data provided by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), interest on existing debts takes 1.6% of the gross product from the US economy. According to experts, by 2043, the amount of such deductions may reach 6.2%, that is, about $ 1.2 trillion. Now the country spends the same amount on social security programs.

The author compares the behavior of the current head of the White House in foreign policy with the actions of an alcoholic who cannot be sated by state intervention in various conflicts. 

Joe Biden, who ordered the military to leave Afghanistan, indirectly draws the United States into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, threatens Iran with an attack and provokes China to war over Taiwan.

According to forecasts, the US debt relative to GDP will still be able to remain at the same level for the next few years. It will begin to grow from 2024 and by 2031 it will reach 107%, and by 2052 it will cross the 185% mark. The CBO reports, the author of the article writes, can already be read as a horror movie script.

The total debt is $30.6 trillion, and if you subtract domestic lending – $23.9 trillion, that is, it exceeds 100% of GDP. The last time such a "record" was set at the end of World War II in 1946. Then the debt was 106%. However, then America was experiencing an economic boom, and the average value of debt over the past half century was 46%. 

In 2007, before the onset of the financial crisis, its value was at the level of 35%.

Doug Bandow concludes that American citizens will have to rethink priorities. It is necessary to abandon the attitude to war as something frivolous. References to the concept of "national security", as an unconditional argument in disputes about increasing military spending, gradually ceases to work. The higher the costs, the less convincing this argument becomes for ordinary citizens and businesses.