Talk:National debt of the United States

US Public Debt vs US Private Debt

Something's missing here. If there's a page dedicated to "United States Public Debt", why isn't there one so titled for "United States Private debt"? If understanding the "debt ceiling" invokes this page on "United States Public Debt", why not one similarly titled and detailed called "United States PRIVATE debt"?

Understanding the economic buzz surrounding the term "debt ceiling" might be easier to grasp if there was a similarly titled page called "United States PRIVATE Debt". I know I'd like to compare and contrast the two concepts. I'd write it myself, but I don't know what I'm doing, and the person who wrote and formatted the former should also format and write the latter to better contrast the two concepts (besides, quite frankly I don't even know what balancing a checkbook means (bozo_de_niro@37.com).

Carmen & Rogoff debt-to-GDP threshold at 90 % is gross debt NOT public debt

I emailed Carmen Reinhart about this question specifically and asked which one it is that they meant. She replied that it is gross debt, not public debt(or net debt).

Our exchange:

Hello,

I just wonder about the 90 % threshold of public debt which usually induces a GDP growth slowdown.

In the latest working paper from April this is defined as 'public debt'. Correct me if I am wrong, but the net public debt is around 68 % for the U.S.(and forecasted to rise to about mid-70s within a year or two and then stabilize).

However, America's gross debt is now over 100 %.

Which measure should be used? And can gross debt be used too for this? The term used in the working paper from April was 'public debt' - not net public debt.

I would be very happy if there was some kind of clarification on this as googling have not made me wiser!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Yes it is gross debt, which for the US is above the 90% threshold. This is the longest time series beginning in 1790. It is central (federal government), so it does not include state debt and government sponsored enterprises, which now include the two mortgage giants best Carmen

Carmen M. Reinhart Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow Peterson Institute for International Economics 1750 Massachussetts Avenue, NW Washington DC 20036-1903 tel. 202-454-1325 fax. 202-659-3225 creinhart@piie.com http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~creinhar/ www.carmenreinhart.com

_______________________________________

Unhelpful nominalization and other shortcomings

Section 3, Debt Ceiling, states: "The U.S. government proposes a federal budget every year, which must be approved by Congress." 'The U.S. government' is far too vague. I came to this page because I don't know how the debt ceiling works and I want to learn. I know the Executive Branch, the House, the Senate and the Judicial Branch each have budgets they publish periodically (probably also the Pentagon and every government agency). They are all 'the U.S. government' and none of them is. Who, exactly, proposes this budget and does it include all these other budgets? Is it the same as the Executive budget or separate from it? Also, "extraordinary measures" further down in the section, needs at least one concrete example. The first paragraph, about the Bond Act of 1917 is very clear. The limit applied to the total amount of issue in bonds. Then things get vague: "nearly all federal debt" - what has been added to bonds? "The Treasury is authorized to issue debt needed to fund government operations..." - does that mean or include regular issuing of currency or is the distinction between bonds and currency inmaterial? Sorry, I know this is a difficult topic to write about, but I'm just not finding what I need to know on this page. Can someone fix, please?Baon (talk) 22:59, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Clarified government; changed to U.S. president and linked the federal budget process article.Farcaster (talk) 00:01, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Gave an example of extraordinary measures and included a link to the Geithner letter, which spells out the measures.Farcaster (talk) 00:01, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Issuance of currency is probably immaterial.Farcaster (talk) 00:03, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Wrong numbers in foreign/domestic debt ratio

This article from gao.gov: http://gao.gov/assets/650/649848.pdf , states that about 5 % of the debt is from foreign investors, on Page 18. But the wikipedia article says around 40%. The sources to this page are from the banks of the lending countries, and I would say that the US have more cridible numbers, than China and Taiwan.

United States credit default

Should be merged into this article or possibly not at all. Seems like a trivial mention that has not received the depth of coverage or asserts any lasting effects to warrant a standalone article. Mkdw^talk 18:04, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes, that is a good idea!--I am One of Many (talk) 18:22, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Deficits vs. National Debt Increases

The article contains a nice chart titled "Total Deficits vs. National Debt Increases," which shows that each increase in national debt is significantly larger than the corresponding deficit.

Two in particular stand out:

• In 2001, there was a budget surplus, yet the national debt still increased.
• In 2008, the budget deficit was under $500 billion yet the national debt increased by more than twice as much (about $1000 billion).

This goes against the popular misconception that the national debt is simply the cumulative effect of all previous deficits. In fact, national debt is much greater than the cumulative effect of all previous deficits.

The article really ought to have a full explanation of why this is. 174.24.11.30 (talk) 16:14, 23 February 2013 (UTC)