Been watching the scare mongering going on in popular media about the US National Debt reaching $20+ trillion, and crossing a 100% of annual GDP. We just have to keep in mind that the US has been creating GDP for over 200 years and the federal government has been acquiring or creating assets for those 200+ years. There is no ready estimate of what these assets are currently valued at, and the current debt level is presumably only a small fraction of the value of these assets. The federal government can issue securities based on their assets and cover the national debt easily. In short, the federal government's debt to asset ratio is not all that scary. An added factor is that the bulk of these securities are held by foreigners. So the movements to grow government, or shrink government, or privatize government functions, have complex economic and geopolitical dimensions that have to be debated carefully.
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