Deficit and debt ceiling

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Deficit and debt ceiling발음듣기

Before we talk about the debt ceiling, it's important to realize the difference between the deficit and the debt.발음듣기

Because these words are thrown around and it's clear that they're related, but sometimes people might confuse one for the other.발음듣기

The deficit is how much you overspend in a given year, while the debt is the total amount, the cumulative amount, of debt you you've gotten over many, many years.발음듣기

So let's take a look, I guess a very simplified example, let's say you have some type of a country.발음듣기

And that country spends, in a given year, $10.발음듣기

But it's only bringing in $6 in tax revenue.발음듣기

So it's bringing in taxes.발음듣기

It's only bringing in $6.발음듣기

So this country in this year, where it spends $10, even though it only has $6 to spend, it has a $4 deficit.발음듣기

Def is the short for deficit.발음듣기

And well, let me just write it out.발음듣기

You might think it's defense or something.발음듣기

It has a $4 deficit.발음듣기

And you might say, well, how does it spend more money that it brings in?발음듣기

How can it actually continue to spend this much?발음듣기

Where will it get the $4 from?발음듣기

And the answer is, it will borrow that $4.발음듣기

Our little country will borrow it.발음듣기

And so the debt, maybe going into this year, the country already had some debt.발음듣기

Maybe it already had $100 of debt.발음듣기

And so in this situation, it would have to borrow another $4 of debt.발음듣기

And so exiting this year, it would have $104 of debt.발음듣기

If the country runs the same $4 deficit the year after this, then the debt will increase to $108.발음듣기

If it runs another $4 deficit, than the debt will increase to $112.발음듣기

Now that we have that out of the way, let's think about what the debt ceiling is.발음듣기

So you could imagine, the United States actually does.발음듣기

It's continuing to run a deficit.발음듣기

It's continuing to spend more than it brings in.발음듣기

And actually, for the United States, these ratios are appropriate.발음듣기

For every dollar that the United States spends right now, 40% is borrowed.발음듣기

Or another way to think about it, it only has 60% of every dollar that it needs to spend right now.발음듣기

So it has to go out into the debt markets and borrow 40% to keep spending at its current rate.발음듣기

And so if it's continuing to borrow, you could imagine that the debt keeps on increasing.발음듣기

So let me draw a little graph here.발음듣기

So that axis is time.발음듣기

This axis right over here is the total cumulative amount of debt that we have.발음듣기

We continue to have to borrow 40% of every dollar that we're spending.발음듣기

And so our debt is continuing to increase.발음듣기

And Congress has the power, or Congress has the authority, to essentially limit how much debt we have.발음듣기

So right now we have a current debt limit of $14.3 trillion.발음듣기

And even though Congress has this authority, the way that it's worked in the past, is this kind of just a rubber stamp.발음듣기

Congress has just always allowed the debt ceiling to go up and up and up to fund our borrowing costs.발음듣기

And if you think about it, that kind of makes sense because right now Congress is the one that decides where to spend the money.발음듣기

What are the obligations.발음듣기

And so the debt ceiling is like, OK, we've already agreed what you have to spend your money on.발음듣기

Congress is the one that figures out what we spend our money on, and what our taxes are.발음듣기

And so they say, look, we've already determined how much you have to borrow.발음듣기

It would seem kind of ridiculous for us after we've determined how much you borrow to say that you cannot borrow it.발음듣기

You cannot you cannot actually do what we've told you to do.발음듣기

And so historically, Congress has just kind of gone with the flow.발음듣기

They said, OK, yeah we've told you we need to borrow more money to execute - the executive branch has to run the government - for you to actually run the government based on the budget we told you.발음듣기

So they just keep upping it.발음듣기

And the last time the debt ceiling was raised was actually very recently, February 12, 2010.발음듣기

It was raised from $12.3 trillion, point actually $12.4 trillion to the $14.3 trillion.발음듣기

And this happens pretty regularly.발음듣기

It's happened 10 times since 2001, 74 times since 1962.발음듣기

So it's just a regular operating thing.발음듣기

And right now the Obama administration says, look, we've actually come up against our debt ceiling.발음듣기

We want to raise it, and ideally for the Obama administration, they want to raise it by about $2.4 trillion.발음듣기

So they want to raise it to $16.7 trillion, which will kind of put it off the table for a little bit.발음듣기

Put it past the elections so that we don't have to debate this anymore.발음듣기

The Republicans on the other the side, want to essentially use this, and this is a little bit unusual, to use this as leverage to essentially reduce the deficit.발음듣기

And not only to reduce the deficit, but it's in particular to reduce the deficit through spending cuts.발음듣기

And so that's why it's become this big game of chicken and why we're going up against this limit.발음듣기

Now, one thing that you may or may not realize is that we've actually already hit the debt limit, the current debt limit.발음듣기

And we hit that debt limit on May 16, 2011.발음듣기

I'm making this video at the end of July in 2011.발음듣기

And the only reason why the country's continuing to operate, and the only reason why the country has been able to continue to pay interest on its obligations, and pay issue social security checks, and support Medicare, and buy fuel for aircraft carriers, and all the rest, is that Geithner, who's the Treasury Secretary, has been able to find cash in other places, cash normally set aside for employee pensions and all the rest.발음듣기

And has essentially done a little bit of a bookkeeping, taking money from one place to feed another.발음듣기

But what he said, what he's publicly said, is that he won't be able to do that anymore as of August 2, 2011.발음듣기

So this right here is the date that everyone is paying attention to, August 2, 2011.발음듣기

According to Geithner, at that point, he won't be able to find random pockets of cash here and there and shuffle it around.발음듣기

And what he calls extraordinary measures.발음듣기

And at that point, the United States will not be able to fulfill all of its obligations.발음듣기

And so if you think about all of the obligations of the United States, this is a huge oversimplification here.발음듣기

So this bar represent all of the obligations.발음듣기

Some of those obligations are things like interest on the debt that it already owes.발음듣기

It already owes a huge amount of debt, $14.3 trillion.발음듣기

And things like social security, Medicare, defense, and then all of the other stuff that the country has to support, all of their other obligations.발음듣기

So if as of August 2, 2011, we cannot issue any more debt, and Geithner doesn't have any extra cash laying around with these extraordinary measures, then, if those are the only options on the table, The only option is to somehow reduce some of these things by 40%.발음듣기

Because 40% of every dollar we used to spend on all of these obligations, 40% are borrowed.발음듣기

And so something over here is going to give.발음듣기

We're not going to fulfill our obligations to one or more of these things, all of these things that we are legally obligated to fulfill.발음듣기

That Congress has said, these are the things that the United States should be spending its money on.발음듣기

And so at that point, it is perceived that we would have to default.발음듣기

And a default actually would be on any of its obligations.발음듣기

But in particular, we could be, especially if we have to cut everything by 40%.발음듣기

And we don't want to see retirees not be able to get evicted from their houses, or aircraft carriers not have fuel, or whatever else.발음듣기

We might defer, or try to restructure, or do something weird with our debt.발음듣기

In which case, we would be defaulting.발음듣기

And I want to be clear, a default, it's usually referred to not fully paying the interest on debt that you owe.발음듣기

But a default would be any of its obligations.발음듣기

The United States has this AAA rating.발음듣기

If the United States says it's going to give you a Social Security check, you trust that.발음듣기

If the United States says that it's going to pay for that Medicare payment, you trust that.발음듣기

If it says it's going to give you an interest payment, you trust that.발음듣기

All of a sudden, if United States does not fulfill any of those obligations, then all of the obligations becomes suspect.발음듣기

And the reason why this is a big deal, as you can imagine, if you borrow money, you've always been good at paying back that money, you're going to pay lower interest than other people would have to pay.발음듣기

But all of a sudden, for whatever reason, one day you default.발음듣기

You either delay your payment, or you say you don't have the cash to pay your payments, then people's like, wow you're a much riskier person to lend money to.발음듣기

So now I'm going to increase the interest rates on you.발음듣기

And so the perception is if the United States were to default on its debt, or any of its obligations, that interest rates would go up.발음듣기

And the reason why this would really not great is because it would make the debt and the deficit even worse.발음듣기

Then this chunk is going to have to grow.발음듣기

Our obligations are on debt.발음듣기

As new debt gets issued, we're gonna have to pay more and more interest.발음듣기

So it's going to just make matters worse.발음듣기

It's going to make the deficit worse.발음듣기

And on top of that, it's not just that the government's debt, the interest on the government's debt will go up, but interest on all debt in the United States will probably go up.발음듣기

Because government debt is perceived to be the safest, it's the benchmark.발음듣기

A lot of other debt contractors are actually tied to government debt.발음듣기

So you'll have interest rates throughout the economy go up, which is exactly what you do not want to happen when you are either in a recession, or when you are recovering from a recession.발음듣기

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