Note that this has nothing to do with limiting freedoms to earn nor how much funding small or large government needs or deserves, or the general unfairness of grotesque wealth disparities between individuals (though that ought to be an issue) – just a basic pragmatic orderly society question. How can we govern ourselves if … ?

The prompt for capturing this stub today is the emerging consequence of the US (and other) national debts hitting multi-Trillion record highs, and economic commentators warning of potential disastrous consequences. The feature that many are pointing out is that gilt / government bond rates are creeping up to unprecedented levels too. A major lever of government regulation of national finances has been that government treasuries were the lender of last resort – with the steadiest / safest (lowest rate) source of investment funding. What’s changed? Some of the tech-bros can now compete for that lending business. (Check – have I got that summary the right way round? – either way the point is individual entities are becoming “bigger” than nation states in these markets that regulate interest and inflation rates especially in times of national / international financial and banking crises. “Scary” as an actual Bank of England ex-chairman said this morning, ditto Andrew Neil watching the gilts markets yesterday and the debts this morning US 40Tn / UK 3Tn.)

The BBC story on the US and comparison to others inc UK, the key point being that because the US$ is still the main base currency the US can actually get away with the risk for longer than the rest of us. The risks are real if any new political or financial crisis arises.

=====

Previously here on Psybertron:

Borders vs Business – from last year. (And more on states without national borders – we are nothing – from Matthew Syed.)

General search on Tax the Rich

General search on Wealth

=====