Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
For government debt, it's usually we owe ourselves, not another party, like merchants or banks or other states. In that sense, we're able to manage the debt in whatever way benefits us. If it's another party, they'll manage it in whatever way benefits them.
True. And as Krugman argues, debt is not so much a thing you owe, but a rate at which you pay, and also, to a large extent, with government debt, we are paying ourselves. So when we hear things like "each American family owes $50k" or whatever it is, it's really pushing that non-abstract notion of debt. It's calling it a pound of flesh when it really isn't. It might be that some people feel more comfortable with the symbols of abstraction than with the abstractions themselves. Like I said, it's just a thought. :) But it might help explain why someone with economic views like Ron Paul names their kid Rand. This comic comes to mind: http://i.imgur.com/xEXIB.gif
