A metric a lot of things experts tend to rely on is the debt-to-GDP ratio. The idea being that you can have an insane debt, but if your economic output is also insane, you’ll be able to pay it off easier than a lesser economy. The US’ is currently at 120%-ish as of earlier this year. Notable examples to pull from seem to be Greece, and how they defaulted from their debt spiral after failing a repayment (ratio: 180%), and Japan, which I believe currently holds the largest Debt-to-GDP ratio (238%-ish).
Edit: interjecting my thoughts that nobody asked for, is that debt seems like a weird unknown in the economic media I see. Like, growing a significant debt is bad, but it oftentimes is used on infrastructure that you can’t just un-build, like what you can with a debt. When a country that did so defaults, I know there’s studies into it, but it almost seems terribly underreported on. So much so that I can’t say I’d know how things will unfold, especially with an economy of the US’ importance.
A metric a lot of things experts tend to rely on is the debt-to-GDP ratio. The idea being that you can have an insane debt, but if your economic output is also insane, you’ll be able to pay it off easier than a lesser economy. The US’ is currently at 120%-ish as of earlier this year. Notable examples to pull from seem to be Greece, and how they defaulted from their debt spiral after failing a repayment (ratio: 180%), and Japan, which I believe currently holds the largest Debt-to-GDP ratio (238%-ish).
Edit: interjecting my thoughts that nobody asked for, is that debt seems like a weird unknown in the economic media I see. Like, growing a significant debt is bad, but it oftentimes is used on infrastructure that you can’t just un-build, like what you can with a debt. When a country that did so defaults, I know there’s studies into it, but it almost seems terribly underreported on. So much so that I can’t say I’d know how things will unfold, especially with an economy of the US’ importance.
You can have insane debt. But if your economic output is also insane, you are insane.