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Government debt is typically measured as the gross debt of the general government sector that is in the form of liabilities that are debt instruments. [2]: 207 A debt instrument is a financial claim that requires payment of interest and/or principal by the debtor to the creditor in the future.
The government then has to issue more bonds, which because of supply and demand, become less valuable with each one issued. And the cycle continues forever. For people and for governments, debt is ...
Rising government debt levels have seemingly always been in the headlines. In recent years, U.S. debt levels have become political, with one side of the aisle often refusing to raise the debt limit...
Also, this number excludes state and local debt. According to the OECD, general government gross debt (federal, state, and local) in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2015 was $22.5 trillion (125% of GDP); subtracting out $5.25 trillion for intragovernmental federal debt to count only federal "debt held by the public" gives 96% of GDP.
Because the government spends more money than it collects in tax revenue, lawmakers need to periodically tackle the issue -- a politically difficult task, as many are reluctant to vote for more debt.
The European debt crisis is a crisis affecting several eurozone countries since the end of 2009. [7] [8] Member states affected by this crisis were unable to repay their government debt or to bail out indebted financial institutions without the assistance of third-parties (namely the International Monetary Fund, European Commission, and the European Central Bank).
Fitch cited the federal government's rising debt burden and the political difficulties that the U.S. government has had in addressing spending and tax policies as the principal reasons for ...
The United States debt ceiling is a legislative limit that determines how much debt the Treasury Department may incur. [23] It was introduced in 1917, when Congress voted to give Treasury the right to issue bonds for financing America participating in World War I, [24] rather than issuing them for individual projects, as had been the case in the past.