The U.S. national debt surpassed $34 trillion this week, marking a grim milestone as federal debt continues to rise at a record pace under persistent annual deficits, according to the Treasury Department.
Thanks, I’m glad you found it useful! Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific recommendations for further reading - it’s the sort of thing I’ve just picked up over the years of paying attention to politics and economics rather than from any specific sources.
The key graph to look at on that page is the one that shows the debt to GDP ratio (which, as it explains, is the most useful way to measure debt because it shows the country’s ability to repay its loans). And you can see, despite the fact that Biden’s administration has hit the highest ever raw national debt number, they’ve actually done a pretty good job at stabilising this ratio after the disaster that was Trump’s term.
(To be fair to Trump, COVID was responsible for some of that big upwards spike. But you can see it was trending upwards - ie, bad - under Trump before COVID started.)
Which means that, yes, the national debt has continued to rise in real numbers under Biden, but the US economy has also been growing at a similar rate, meaning nothing’s got any worse in real terms.
Thanks, I’m glad you found it useful! Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific recommendations for further reading - it’s the sort of thing I’ve just picked up over the years of paying attention to politics and economics rather than from any specific sources.
However, after a quick search, the US Treasury actually has a pretty good page about it.
The key graph to look at on that page is the one that shows the debt to GDP ratio (which, as it explains, is the most useful way to measure debt because it shows the country’s ability to repay its loans). And you can see, despite the fact that Biden’s administration has hit the highest ever raw national debt number, they’ve actually done a pretty good job at stabilising this ratio after the disaster that was Trump’s term.
(To be fair to Trump, COVID was responsible for some of that big upwards spike. But you can see it was trending upwards - ie, bad - under Trump before COVID started.)
Which means that, yes, the national debt has continued to rise in real numbers under Biden, but the US economy has also been growing at a similar rate, meaning nothing’s got any worse in real terms.
The BBC also has a pretty good overview of national debt. It’s relating to the UK but the principles are still the same.