What were some specific problems caused by this spending? Seemed to work quite well.
Up until our international image was destroyed two months ago, we were in a privileged position allowing deficit spending while the rest of the world absorbed the negatives.
Trump certainly doesn't have a solution, but I'm also not convinced he has correctly identified a problem. Nation-state debt from the country whose currency is the de-facto international standard for the world, is categorically different than your mortgage or your credit card debt.
It's clearly unsustainable. Eventually it leads to a run on the dollar and inability to refinance the debt. At that point, the debt gets inflated away.
I ask you: do you imagine it can continue forever, with debt reaching arbitrarily high multiples of GDP?
I agree that the system can become unstable. Clearly; it's being made unstable currently.
I disagree that it must become unstable, especially on a time frame relevant to anyone currently alive. Perhaps certain resources could be sheparded more sustainably than they have been but I do not think we were previously heading towards a consequence worse than we are currently experiencing.
That argument applied to current administrative actions is like saying "we all die someday, therefore we should all commit suicide right now".
Up until our international image was destroyed two months ago, we were in a privileged position allowing deficit spending while the rest of the world absorbed the negatives.
Trump certainly doesn't have a solution, but I'm also not convinced he has correctly identified a problem. Nation-state debt from the country whose currency is the de-facto international standard for the world, is categorically different than your mortgage or your credit card debt.