Reassuring! August 6, 2023 Krugman: Is a U.S. Debt Crisis Looming? Is it Even Possible? Executive summary: NO. To which I would add a few thoughts of my own. First, even for me, who kinda gets it, this is reassuring. So enjoy the reassurance. I did. Second, as you’ve heard me say for decades: Just as a $300,000 mortgage is worrisome on a home appraised at $290,000 but trivial on a $4 million home . . . frightening for a family earning $40,000 a year but inconsequential to a family earning $800,000 a year . . . so is it not the size of the National Debt that matters, but its size relative to the economy as a whole. Imagine that we run $1 trillion deficits annually for the next 50 years. Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Another $50 trillion on top of today’s $31 trillion? But if our economy grows at 4.5% a year for those same 50 years — the Fed’s 2% inflation target we’re once again close to achieving plus 2.5% real growth — our GDP would have grown from $26 trillion to $243 trillion. So the by-then $81 trillion we owed would bring us back from today’s Debt/GDP ratio of 120% or so . . . about where it was after we borrowed like crazy to win World War II . . . to 33% — about where it was 35 years later, before Reagan/Bush 43/Trump sent it soaring with tax cuts for billionaires. Except that if we’re smart, our future deficits will go not toward defeating fascism in World War II by blowing things up, but toward building things that will last 50 and 100 years . . . i.e., revitalizing our infrastructure and investing in our kids . . . even as we defeat fascism here without spending a dime, simply by voting Democrat in 2024. And continuing to vote that way as long as it takes for the Republican Party to regain its footing as a party of real facts, not alternative facts, with leaders like Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, and Chris Christie (to take three of the all-too-few examples) rather than Trump, Giuliani and the Pillow Guy (to take three of the all-too-numerous), who are willing to defy the strongman who, even as we speak, is continuing his attempted overthrow of democracy. We are in mid-coup, writes not-to-be-missed Maureen Dowd. But if this year’s special elections are an indication, more people are beginning to see the importance of voting blue. That’s reassuring, too. Jonathan C.: “Would you advise contributing to Biden/Harris, or rather to the DNC?” → It’s a joint victory fund, so you don’t have to make a decision. The first $6,600 automatically goes to the Biden Campaign. Anything beyond that goes to the DNC.