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What is the Outstanding Balance?

Danny Roberts

05 Feb 2024

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 readers a fresh take on the basics, and a running commentary that stretches the discourse. To put it simply, if you agree with everything I write, I'm failing.

Here's a sample of the kinds of writing you can expect in this newsletter.

Revisiting the basics with a fresh twist
Commentary on current events
Response to prominent opinion pieces
Occasional book reviews
Policy proposals
Social commentary
Analysis

But ultimately, I'll see what works and what you like, and go from there. Happy reading!

Think of interest as just another government spending program

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

Many people think the national debt is their personal debt—and we mostly just let them

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

More eligible voters don't vote than vote for either US party

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

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is very short and worth a read

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

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Think of interest as just another government spending program

Many people think the national debt is their personal debt—and we mostly just let them

More eligible voters don't vote than vote for either US party

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is very short and worth a read