While the world rails on about the stable genius that is the current occupant of the White House, this little number seems like it should be blaring from every news channel 24/7.
The short of it? China no longer feels that US sovereign debt is a safe investment.
The long of it? China is the single largest customer of US sovereign debt. We float our government and project our military interests using cash from China. Without China, the liquidity of our bond market–the very thing we depend on for day-to-day financing, is in doubt. Would the rest of the world want to fill the void left by China’s departure?
Could the rest of the world fill the void left by China’s departure?
I mean, we [not all of us, but those of us rooting for Team GOP at least] just decided to write ourselves $1.5T in checks over the next ten years, mostly from the proceeds of the T-Bill market. We [again, read: Team GOP] did this having just spent the previous eight-odd years practically foaming at the mouth over the levels of sovereign debt this nation carries. This is not a new trend either. Throughout the Clinton administration deficit hawks loudly deplored Democratic spending. Those same hawks then started two wars off the books, massively increased spending on pharmaceuticals, and then engineered a tremendous private to public debt transfer. All of this over the course of eight years.
Lather/rinse/repeat for Obama –> our current president.
In summary then, we’ve finally discovered the amount of debt our primary creditor is comfortable with…and we’re planning on spending right past that with wild abandon.
Good thing the .1% got their tax break now I guess?