This piece covers government interest payments, and US government interest payments in particular, with the hope of offering the reader a fundamentally new way of understanding them. I will argue the payment by government of interest (on liabilities denominated in its currency) is best thought of as a government spending
I came across a clip the other day, from the 1992 presidential debate, in which George H. W. Bush is asked a question about the national debt. It's short if you want to take a look. Most of the media commentary focused on the then-president's response
Our media typically cover elections by zooming in on people who vote, treating this as the "100%" of which other vote counts are proportions. But it's worth remembering that if you include everyone who is eligible to vote, the most popular "party" in every
In times of turmoil, it is sometimes difficult to think over the sound of the yelling. The US has an election tomorrow that is widely seen as having very high stakes. Election season, and politics more broadly, always involve a bending and reshaping of individuals' conception of reality to
I noticed a pattern in myself that goes back a long time. I get really excited about something. I decide to spend time on it. I spend some time on it, and it's fun and exciting. Then out of nowhere, and WAY too early, I get discouraged. I
I've had a busy couple of months since my last piece, What's the relationship between public spending and taxpayers?, and it will likely be another few weeks until I post again. In the meantime, I wanted to make a quick plug for a new film called
Author's note: Thank you for all of your support so far. I'm still just getting started, and I'm trying out different topics and styles. I've enabled feedback buttons for members, so you can use those to register your appreciation or displeasure, and
Understanding the nuts and bolts of how the US monetary system works might seem daunting. And I'm not going to lie, it kind of is. But by the end of this piece you'll understand the basic details of its setup and operation. Every country's
In America, we aren't accustomed to hearing much about shortages. But starting in 2020, we all began to hear a lot about them. First, there were toilet paper shortages. Then there were mask and PPE shortages. With many adjusting to staying at home, purchases of imported durable goods
The year 2021 marked 50 years in a world with no gold standard, when in 1971 US President Nixon suspended international convertibility of the US dollar into gold. Nor was the gold standard replaced with any other sort of commodity standard, like a silver standard or a wheat standard or
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If you have subscribed—thank you. You make this small publication possible. To give you an idea of what to expect, I plan to post about once every 2-4 weeks. Each post will be about a topic that has some bearing on economics, society, and policy. I aim to give
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This is The Outstanding Balance, a brand new site by Danny Roberts that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is