Ray Dalio

So that's the mechanics about what's happening.

Yeah, right.

It is a source of revenue.

And it will diminish that.

However, the economics, it's small by comparison to the gap.

So as I said, the mechanics of the debt situation really have a few components.

The first is that when debt service payments add up, they squeeze out other spending.

can create the equivalent of an economic heart attack.

The second is there's a supply-demand issue.

In other words, a deficit requires debt sale.

And so we have a lot of debt sales, and there's a lessening demand for that.

And then there are the central bank playing a role.

So what we have now is, think of it as a big company or an individual.

Except the main difference between a company, a country, and an individual or

a company and a government is that the government can print money.

So that's the basics, but figure it this way.

The United States, here are the numbers.

The United States spends, will this year spend, about $7 trillion, and it'll take in about $5 trillion.

So that means it's spending 40% more than it is taking in.

Because it has run deficits and sold a lot of debt, the total debt is about six times the total amount of money coming in, and we're seeing those debt service payments squeeze that out.