Hello and welcome to Today’s Brief from The Wall Street Journal. This week we’re asking a simple question: When does U.S. debt cross the line from manageable to truly dangerous? As WSJ explains, small deficits can help smooth economic ups and downs. But once debt grows faster than the economy for years on end, trouble starts to brew. According to the report, when interest payments climb above three percent of GDP, “it begins to crowd out investments in schools, roads and research.” Economists often point to a 90 percent debt-to-GDP threshold—beyond that, growth tends to slow. The video warns, “Debt is like a credit card: you can carry a balance in a pinch, but eventually the bill comes due.” So long as Treasury can borrow at low rates, the U.S. avoids crisis. The real danger arrives when rising rates push interest costs so high that Washington can no longer cover basic priorities without massive tax hikes or deep cuts. That’s when U.S. debt stops being a tool and becomes a burden. Thanks for listening.
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