The elephant in the room

Make no mistake: the yearly sabre rattling in US Congress about the debt ceiling is not the biggest problem and will eventually be resolved. The real issue is the absolute level of US national debt: 31.4 trillion USD and growing! In the long run, this is not sustainable and a substantial burden to the coming generations. This debt will eventually lead to austerity measures at a moment investments are needed, lead to more inflation and lower living standards. In the meantime, US policy makers have been successfully kicking the can down the road and buyers of that debt have been abundant.