Increases to the Federal Debt since 4Q2000, as horrible as they may seem, are part of a macroeconomic growth trend for federal debt which is lower since 1984

If the macroeconomic growth trend for federal debt as a percentage of GDP were higher, however, that would be different, but that too was arrested in the early 1980s.

Of course, that picture would look so, so much better if the real GDP growth trend since 1983 weren't so disappointing.

The Reagan Revolution delivered on reducing the federal debt growth trend, but not on increasing the economic growth trend. 

The biggest failure of the Reagan Revolution was its misplaced faith in human nature.

We liked hearing that we knew best what to do with our own money. "Tax cuts will boost economic growth". It made us feel so good, so optimistic.

But owners of capital promptly pocketed the windfalls and ultimately invested them elsewhere.

 

Federal Debt:

4Q2000 $5.662T

4Q2008 $10.699T: +$5.037T (+88.9%) Bush 43

4Q2016 $19.976T: +$9.277T (+86.7%) Obama

4Q2020 $27.747T: +$7.771T (+38.9%) Trump I

4Q2024 $36.218T: +$8.471T (+30.5%) Biden

Now $40T: +$3.782T (+10.4%) Trump II to date

 

 

The Federal Debt trend since 1984 is good actually, unless you are a Keynesian, or in the case of AOC, a Milton Keynesian

😂 

 

OK, I charted four months of Strait of Hormuz tanker transits as reported in UKMTO JMIC Updates even though some people have thought the data is . . . Wei Tu Lo

 It is what it is.

You know the score. Gasoline isn't $5, but it isn't a buck seventy-five, either.

Meanwhile, the US Navy is spending vast sums everyday to maintain whatever it is we're supposed to be calling this black hole into which we are flushing billion$ down the drain.

 

 

Middle East tanker transits August 16-22, 2026: Strait of Hormuz 2.4/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 12.6/day

 

Silver is down 3.54% year to date . . .

  . . . but gold is up 6.57% year to date. 

 

 

😁 

 

Just 30% of teenagers worked in 1H2026

 Whose kids are these anyway?