Ever Wonder Where $7 Trillion Goes?

On March 10, a nonpartisan Washington think tank called the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget published a report called: “Break Glass: A Plan for the Next Economic Shock.”

It points out that the United States has never entered an economic downturn as indebted as it is today— meaning there is essentially zero fiscal space to respond to the next crisis.

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, national debt stood at roughly 35% of GDP. By the time it was over, debt had ballooned to about 70%.

Then, when COVID hit in 2020, debt was already at 80% of GDP. By the time that was over, it had surged past 100%.

Today the official national debt is almost at 130% of GDP. That’s well beyond the World War II record.

Each economic crisis starts from a worse position, requires more borrowing, and leaves the country deeper in the hole.

None of this should be surprising to anyone who’s been paying attention. We’ve been writing about this for years.

We said it in 2019 when everything was going great— record stock market, record tax revenue, healthy economy— and the government still ran a trillion dollar deficit.

We wondered out loud— if the government still runs a $1 trillion deficit when everything is great, how bad will the deficit be when there’s an actual crisis?

We didn’t have to wait long to find out; Covid hit shortly thereafter, causing the government deficit to surge to $5+ trillion...(READ THIS FULL COLUMN HERE).

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