Understanding the National Debt and Budget Deficit

In which John discusses the US national debt, the federal budget deficit, plans for shrinking or eliminating the deficit, and tries to provide some context to the political rhetoric and statistics that are constantly thrown around in an election season. Along the way, I hope you'll understand why the United States' sovereign debt hasn't led us to an economic crisis, but also why budget deficits need to shrink in order to ensure that credit remains inexpensive and the US continues to enjoy the trust of the world economy. (Friendly reminder: Educational videos, by extensive precedent, are allowed to be longer than 4:00.)

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[AllianceCounselingGroup]

John, can we please get an updated video for 2023? It seems like the “don’t worry unless…” is happening! Aaaggh! Are we screwed? Especially with the BRICS nations threatening the dollar as the reserve currency and higher interest rates. I love your videos and respect your contributions to helping us all understand things better! Thanks!

[SeanWork]

whoa. can you do an update to this video for 2019?

[nyakRUS]

As long as that series is never ending, because the thing about economics is that it's an ever changing beast.

[mrwizardalien]

Wow. this ACTUALLY helped me understand America's debt. as apposed to all the other fifty thousand ways I have tried to understand it. THANKS JOHN GREEN!

[LtheprodigyH]

"You cannot always believe in quotes you read on the internet."
-Abraham Lincoln

[uhohhotdog]

Talk about MMT

There’s no need to “pay off” the debt.

Paying off the debt means removing money from the economy which we can’t afford to be doing.

[tomstarkey]

I especially like the part about "it's not a crises….yet!"  And although the deficits are projected to come down slightly in the next 5 years, they are also projected to increase thereafter, potentially sending us into that "crisis" scenario. Deficit spending and Keynesian Economics have a limited life span. Countries and empires fall when they don't realize their vulnerabilities in time.

[mannurse]

John, I bought your first book before I knew how awesome you were. Now that I have watched a ton of you YouTube videos I am tempted to buy your second as a thank you for being awesome.

[lirgonia]

John Green: the person who can get me to choose to pay attention to Debt & Deficit (and understand some of it) for over 6 1/2 minutes.

[TheBType]

Can we just agree that John Green is like the new Bill Nye in terms of educating and entertaining us?

[pirho]

I like this guy's crash course videos... he has a special way of holding your interest and a healthy doze of humor to match.

[Kaly_Diallo]

Hi JOHN GREEN good to see you in the economy side. miss u're Crash Courses and this video too is actually very amazing .keep up the good work

[notexactlypaul]

4:40 - 5:05, literally the best explanation of how money works I have ever seen. - PhD econ student

[theeNappy]

It's amazing, there are people in the comment section spouting "nu-uh!" without explaining why in any intelligent way.

I especially love John Galt's advocacy of anarco-capitalisim because a) you picked the most clishe neo-con name possible, and b) governments actually do generate unmonetizable wealth in the form of social good, something companies only begrudgingly do with increasing rarity.
Companies do produce monetized wealth (for their shareholders) because *that's their job, not the government's.* Attacking the concept of government because it doesn't generate monetized wealth is like attacking a fish because it doesn't ride a bicycle.

He just explained US debt to you, and any desire to pretend it's worse than it really is to feed some bizarre doom-complex is unnecessary.

[lovethatdirtywater]

Thank you for simply outlining the facts of this, as it's been significantly more helpful than any professor or politician's attempt to explain this

[animedorkify]

One little problem, 0:45 it's not held by US government, it's held by the Federal reserves which despite it's name is not actually federal. The federal reserves are owned by private share holders, they're as federal as federal express.

[davidhernandez-serr]

I'm having goosebumps watching this in 2021, 27 trillion in debt!

[steved]

"The public debt is nothing more than the $ spent by the federal govt that haven't yet been used to pay taxes. They sit in the economy as cash and as $ in reserve accounts and securities accounts (tsy secs) on the Fed's books. It functions as the net money supply."- Economist and entrepreneur Warren Mosler

[BobRadu]

I watch this every few months.  It, along with the health care video, really should be required for all voters.

[americawashington]

It's obvious that nobody in the comments knows anything about economics.