3 ms·
The perpetual debt of the US federal and state governments makes some people forget that governments can actually be in the black. Governments like Norway, Sing
by anbop 7y ago
The perpetual debt of the US federal and state governments makes some people forget that governments can actually be in the black. Governments like Norway, Singapore, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia run huge sovereign wealth funds that lend, for debt or equity, huge amounts of money to all kinds of companies.
- asimilator 7y ago> Norway, Singapore, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia Tiny or oil wealthy or both tiny and oil wealthy. Not great examples for your point.
- rat9988 7y agoWhat is the problem with the examples?
- Cilvic 7y agoIt's easier to spend less than you make if you make a lot from effortless resource mining.
- asimilator 7y agoAll of them are very wealthy due to unusual circumstances (mostly oil).
- adventured 7y ago> and state governments makes some people forget that governments can actually be in the black. I don't think it makes sense to include the states in that indictment. Most US states are dramatically better run fiscally than ~95%-97% of all national governments around the world based on debt & tax revenue levels. If you ranked the states with nations, the 50 states would all be among the top 100 nations on debt to revenue ratios, credit rating, stability and predictability of tax revenue. They often have to be fiscally sound by law. Out of the 50 states, only five or six tend to ever have serious or frequent fiscal problems (with California, New York and Illinois routinely having problems). Florida for example has a $1 trillion economy, a $91b budget, and $1.7b in annual debt service costs. That ratio would be the envy of the world outside of a few nations. Most US states are in at least that good of condition or better on debt costs to revenue. Two dozen states are in essentially squeaky clean fiscal condition, as solid as any governments get outside of Norway. Nearly all of the states get extremely good credit ratings. The particular exceptions are: Illinois, New Jersey, Kentucky (the last two still carry good ratings). Even California is in good fiscal shape right now (after a ten year economic expansion of course). They can easily afford their annual debt costs.