re: Mike Johnson was on Moon Monday

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Nah, we aren't even close to Japan or Italy levels of GDP to Debt ratios

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I can't speak to Italy, but Japan's society and views on consumerism are so different from our own that comparing them is like comparing apples to helicopters.

Our average age is 38.5, theirs is 49.1. The average savings (in the US) for 35-44yr-olds is ~$27k while the average savings for 45-54yr-olds is ~$48k. In Japan, it's ~$46k and ~$138k (respectively).



Our overall average savings is ~$65k, theirs is $125k. Along with this, the cost of living in Japan is ~32% lower than the cost of living in the US. Taken altogether, Japan is a society that spends less, saves more and its government bleeds off savings accounts (many Japanese keep their cash close at hand). All of these combined have put Japan in a scenario where they have been fighting deflation.

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and we can print the world's reserve currency (unlike them).

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That sounds like the Magical Money Tree. Inflation is a product of too much money chasing too few goods. Just printing more of it only devalues it. Why do you think inflation refuses to drop below 3%? After a year of higher interest rates, why are both PPI and CPI starting to consistently come in "hotter than expected"? Because consumers still creating historic levels of credit card debt while credit card interest rates are at historic highs and the federal government is still creating gobs of new money through debt-creation.

Along with that, one of the primary reasons the USD is the primary reserve currency is because US debt is considered to be the safest investment out there. As we continue to create more money by creating more debt and never paying it down, more and more investors will begin to see US debt as a riskier and riskier investment. As that happens, the Treasury will have to increase rates just to get lenders to buy the debt. Eventually the debt will grow so large that investors will stop buying regardless of rates. We're already headed into that territory as the auction last fall which almost failed. One failed Treasury auction, maybe two, and the USD's value plummets on the international stage. We've already seen use of the USD as the most used reserve currency drop fairly steadily (slowly, but steadily) over the last twenty years.

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We got plenty of money for this.

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I've got 34.6 trillion disagreements on that and each quarter of this year I will have an extra trillion(ish) to add to it. Next year, that amount will grow even faster.

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I do think we need to shore up our budgets long-term but that is all fixing entitlements like SS and Medicare, Ukraine is a drop in the bucket compared to that. Talking tens of trillions vs not even a trillion.

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No, we need to shore up our budgets now and every cent matters, especially those cents we're just doling out to other countries. Let's face it, SS and Medicare will not be addressed until the USD collapses. Until then, the best we can do is not spend on things we absolutely don't have to spend on. Ukraine is one of those things.

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In fact "spending" on Ukraine probably increases our GDP (therefore helping that ratio)

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All of that "spending" is debt creation. We've been above 100% GDP to debt since 2015, been above 117% since COVID and saw it jump from 117% to 124% over the course of last year. It used to be that 60% GDP to debt ratio was considered perfect and 77% was considered bad. Now?



Claiming GDP to Debt as a defense is a strawman doused in gasoline while playing with matches.

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The best money American has spent in my lifetime is in Ukraine as far as making us safer.

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Then you haven't lived very long.

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We have discovered during the conflict that our Patriot defense systems can beat the best the Russians have, and they have basically blown through all of their best tanks and fighters. That sort of real world testing is priceless,

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I don't disagree here. The hype surrounding the Russian military machine was to the point where they should have subdued Ukraine within 6 months. Their equipment and terrible logistics did more to beat them than has Ukrainian determination and nerve. In that, I share your assessment that it likely extends to their nuclear strike capabilities (but I damned sure don't want to find out the hard way).

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it shows we can completely pivot to China being enemy number 1 without fear.

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Not yet, it doesn't. Russia still has tons of manpower and firepower and they are proving it by slowly continuing to gain ground. Meanwhile we're giving away fricktons of arms and cash (some of it going onto the black market) while our military is being overrun by groups who think strength is being able to claim you're the opposite sex.

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Eventually Ukraine will be a waste of money,

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It already is. We're being bled dry and we will end up with nothing for it but a laurel and a hearty handshake.

We need a wartime consigliere to fight the demorats. Johnson is not the man for the job.