There is a great website showing all kinds of economic statistics at usdebtclock.org. The website also shows the current level of public debts including U.S. federal debt that just passed the $20 trillion threshold.
What does that mean, if anything?
From the website, that means that that the U.S. debt per citizen is an unaffordable $62,422; or an ultra-unaffordable $168,671 per taxpayer (check back in a month to see how fast these numbers are increasing!).
A question someone might ask is: Is there any plan to dramatically reduce government spending?
Unfortunately, Trump’s presidency has revealed that the swamp in Washington DC really is in charge and they have zero interest in change, let alone a reduction in government spending or staffing.
Well, if there is no reduction in spending, what are we facing?
There are several reference points and a common one is the Debt-GDP ratio. This is a measurement of the size of the economy to the debt that the government needs to support. Today, the debt-to-GDP ratio is 105%. So the debt owed by the government is 5% larger than the U.S. economy. This is not sustainable. There are several studies on debt-to-GDP going back hundreds of years on dozens of countries. Depending on the study, anytime the debt-to-GDP goes over 70-90%, then there is a 100% certainty that the government WILL default on its debt obligations. So the U.S. is well past the point of no-return for defaulting on its debt. There is a wide time frame for this default, so it could be 10 years or 40 years, depending on the rate of spending growth and interest rates. As the debt default nears, it will be painful for people – as witnessed recently in Greece, Venezuela, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and other countries that could not pay their debt. (Since 1975, 17 currencies have gone to zero and were replaced. Since the founding of the latest U.S. Federal Reserve in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost 98.8% of its value already.)
Is there any financial opportunity?
Whichever temporary band-aid the government uses to delay debt default, it will become obvious as it must involve creating inflation by some kind of money printing. Printing more money weakens the U.S. dollar and strengthens other currencies, including the two financial metals, gold and silver.