What’s Different About Today’s Government Deficit and Debt?

This article is part of the series, “Left Hook: The Dollars & Sense Policy Forum.”

PERI’s Robert Pollin accounts for the U.S. government’s current deficit and debt, while providing an historical analysis. He argues that “The most critical point is that the current deficits are not serving to prevent an economic collapse. Instead, they are simply helping rich people get richer, while attacking the living standards of working people and the poor, and also continuing to lavish exorbitant funds on the military.”