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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,us.politics
Subject: Re: OT: America could go bankrupt : Musk
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:43:27 +1100
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On 25/10/2024 3:32 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:
> America could go bankrupt – Musk
> From:
>   https://www.rt.com/news/606373-musk-us-bankruptcy-debt/
> 
> As rt.com may be bocked in your country, here is the article
> 
>   America could go bankrupt – Musk
> The cost of servicing the federal debt will absorb tax revenue, leaving nothing for critical needs, the tech billionaire has predicted
> 
> The US is spiraling towards bankruptcy and will quickly go bust if Washington doesn’t stop spending so much money,
> Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has warned.
> 
> Musk was commenting on a post on X, which highlighted skyrocketing interest payments on US government debt.
> 
> “We now pay nearly $1.2 trillion per year in interest on the debt,
> about 23% of all taxes, tariffs and fees collected by the US govt goes to paying interest on the debt,”
> the Wall Street Silver account posted.
> 
> Musk replied, warning that “if there is not a radical reduction of government expenditures,
> then, just like an individual who has taken on too much debt, America will become de facto bankrupt.”
> 
> “The interest on the debt is trending to rapidly absorb all tax revenue, leaving nothing for critical needs,” he added.
> 
> Musk previously pointed out in September that the cost of servicing the vast US federal debt has outstripped
> the current defense budget, which topped $840 billion this year.
> 
> The US Treasury announced in late July that the national debt had surpassed $35 trillion, soaring by a trillion in a six-month period.
> The current figure is $35.7 trillion, according to the US Debt Clock.
> 
> This is not the first time the tech billionaire has sounded the alarm over US debt.
> Earlier this year, Musk said that the current rate of government spending was putting the US in the fast lane to bankruptcy,
> and that government overspending was stoking inflation.
> 
> In September, he wrote that every trillion dollars of debt added is money that “our kids and grandkids are going to have to pay somehow.”
> If debt keeps growing at this pace, Musk warned, the US will be trapped in a vicious cycle where “the only thing we’ll be able to pay is interest.”
> You can share this story on social media:

The simple - if nasty - solution to this problem is inflation. Let the 
dollar inflate and the debt (and the cost of servicing it) dwindles.

People will stop lending you money denominated in terms the inflating 
currency, so it does effectively bankrupt the country. It has happened 
from time to time and the countries involved have survived.

Musk doesn't know as much history as he should.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney