JPMorgan Sounds Alarm On Size Of US Debt, Warns Of Financial Crisis
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
May 25, 2017
After yesterday Goldman mocked Trump’s budget (ironic as it was Trump’s ex-Goldman Chief Economic Advisor who conceived it) and said it had zero chance of being implemented, today it was JPM’s turn to share some purely philosophical thoughts on the shape of future US income and spending, which as we learned yesterday could balance only if the US grows for 10 years at a 3% growth rate, something it has never done, while slashing nearly $4 trillion in in spending, something else it has never done.
What caught our attention in the note by JPM’s Jesse Edgerton was his discussion on the thorniest issue surrounding the US: its unprecedented debt addition, what America’s debt/GDP will look like over the next 30 years, and whether there is any chance it could decline as conservatives in government hope will happen.
The answer to the final point according to JPMorgan, is a very resounding no, or as the bank politely puts it, “Despite this week’s budget proposal, legislative changes that would reverse debt growth look unlikely to us.” Translated: US debt is never going down again.
Here’s why:
As the US population ages in the coming decades, federal government spending on Social Security and Medicare are set to grow as a fraction of US GDP. Meanwhile, our current tax system is expected to collect a roughly constant fraction of GDP in revenues. Thus, deficits and debt will likely grow over time. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) currently projects that the ratio of debt to GDP would reach an unprecedented 150% within 30 years under current law (Figure 1).
The Rest…HERE
