The National Debt: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

America is run like a very shitty business it goes into debt just to give some of it's executives (big company heads) a giant payday while laying off it's employees (having the majority of people in poverty)

ur the goat john i wrote a rap and used your name to reference cool things thanks my dude

re: Greece-there are three reasons that we didn’t have riots: 1) they weren’t rioting over interest rates-they were rioting over the social safety net cuts that were a condition of the loans and they received. we’d riot too if someone said “okay, sure, we’ll keep your economy alive-but you don’t get social security even though we’re not cutting your social security tax.” 2) the federal reserve-aka the US government-issues dollars, and borrows in dollars. the Greek government borrows in Euros, which are issued by the ECB. The Greek government doesn’t have the ability to issue new dollars to pay it off (not that it would be a good idea to do it all at once, but it’s, you know, possible) and thus the actual amount they owe relative to the purchasing power of a Euro is controlled by someone else. Our credit didn’t take a hit because...money machine can always go brrr. 3) the increased borrowing cost led to demand-side inflation, because the cost of doing business (and therefore buying things from businesses) also went up. Sure, there weren’t more Euros being printed (well, not many-debt arguably does create new money), but consumer prices went up locally in a way totally out of proportion to other Eurozone countries. would love a Modern Monetary Theory followup to this.

This troll of a human being is so misleading. He cherry picks information for his libtard audience

Comment

That poem sucked! 😂

Love John Oliver and he's totally right about the Republican hypocrisy and the need for the right kind of investment (especially post pandemic) but I'm afraid he's doing a massive disservice by downplaying the eventual impact of our country's wasteful, unsustainable and completely out of control spending.

One of the best places to get news!!!❤️❤️💜💜

Come on we all know the Republicans are no more than BIG CRYBABIES TRYING TO SINK BIDEN & HARRIS DEMOCRATS. I'm 63yrs old and have seen so much with Congress. Biden works for we the people and these Republicans only work for themselves.

stop giving money to other countries duhhhhh

It seems like a bubble.

meh.. he should have stephanie kelton on

The children and grandchildren thing is clearly just performative. If they *really* cared about the future of their children and grandchildren, they would start trying to do something about the fucking planet being on fire.

This is blatant communist propaganda, government shouldn't spend on infrastructure, it should create incentives for the private sector to do so, and stop taking on debt to create more social programs, this is how government makes the people depend on the government, instead create incentives to motivate the private sector into creating better jobs for the people, like I'd rather govt had a program where they help so shitty jobs pay better than just give it away to no job lifers

You increase spending & the debt during bad times -- like runaway inflation set in motion by Nixon, the financial crisis caused by Bush & Republicans and the Covid crisis caused by Trump. You pay it back in good time ... like Clinton did and Trump did NOT. Republicans fuck things up then bitch when Democrats have to fix it. It's more or less what you expect from a terrorist pedophile ring masquerading as the Republican party. They are enemies of America.

Please do one on Japanese nuclear waste dumping decision, the world needs to know.

Dummy. The factory analogy doesn't work because the bank expects to get repaid in full, within an agreed upon time. That doesn't exist with the US debt.

Mind your own business foreigner!

john oliver saying he's "not an economist" just goes to show he has no idea what he is fucking talking about...

I luv luv luv John Oliver he tells it like it is and he's funny as hell doing it!....he's a very intelligent comedian

As someone that works in the kitchen at a county-run nursing home, another thing that should be changed is the state food regulations because the nursing home gives the diabetic residents food that often gets tossed out.

Silly how Republicans are so upset about the national debt when their idea is to keep funding wars and relying on monopolies. Trumps idea of making jobs is throwing money at CEO's, instead of on infrastructure or producing goods, which will create jobs so long as there are both demand and resources to meet demand and services. Silly how we're running out of natural resources, and yet Trump's campaign was about being for the working man, showing for several months on tv and for years on his social media that he's backing coal mining in America. Great! ... except it's running out. Money won't make more mines. Time will. Trump and his good buddies getting tax cuts and more funding does nothing to help declining resources and declining demand.

"If he is willing to dig a big hole, he is willing to dig a small one" 😂

Stop borrowing $$$$$$$ from China.

inflation is already happening

How come republicans only care about the national debt when they don't control the white house? How come none of them were complaining as the debt kept rising during the previous four years under the big orange balloon?

We didn't know what deficits were until Reagan.

Trump quadrupled the deficit.

It's not entitlements it's unfunded tax cuts.

Countries only go bankrupt when they can't pay us.

Debt is bad. Investment is good. Which one you're doing is up for debate.

His foul mouth adds nothing but to normalize and encourage an increasing degenerate "society".His foul mouth adds nothing but to normalize and encourage an increasing degenerate "society".

Hey John, I heard that there are some new bank policies in 2021. I can no longer make international purchases online without calling my bank. I can’t get them to let me buy from Russia AT ALL. I wonder if you know why this is? Are they really afraid of fraud or is it racism? Or are they trying to keep all our stimulus money in America? 🤔

Not to take the conversations away from these subjects, just we're dealing with a SA crisis right now. I want to help, I think this is helping.. I can't believe I haven't seen anyone else speak on the Dobrik cases like this. They watched it happened. joked about it. Made money off of it, and had over 5 million people a wall- or a door crack away from watching it too... I feel weak, sick to my stomache....

starts something he cannot finish............. hilarious

Haha money printer brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr oh no now we are in debt

How's that duopoly working out for ya?

our national debt almost matches the total market cap of S&P 500. it is hard to build a case for our economic freedom.

Usually their research is spot on but they missed a big one this time: interest rates have been going down because the central banks of the world have been purposely buying their own bonds and articially deflating rates. When Europe and the ECB said they were going to implement negative interest rates,, that is exactly what they did No mystery about it There is a lot of data on this you can look up...

The Gov't borrows money - But also prints it...

Neoclassical (so called mainstream) economists don't understand money and don't understand the finance sector and definately don't understand the deflationary pressures of PRIVATE debt. Stephanie Kelton and Steve Keen (and really all of the MMT/Post-Keynsian economists) actually understand wtf is going on in the economy. I suggest reading The Deficit Myth by Kelton and Debunking Economics by Keen among other great insights. Yes, even more than nobel prize winning toolbuckets that think 6 degree celsius global warming will result in a trivial drop in global GDP...apparently cockroaches will begin bartering when the Homo Sapiens die out!

"You don't know?" That sounds fishy in an educational show where you were telling us the whole time how you know everything!

PLEASE HELP MY OLD HIGH SCHOOL AND HOME TOWN!! It is almost comical that they removed the Native American Imagery and Symbolisms but are KEEPING "savages" as a nickname... PLEASE TELL THEM HOW RACIST THIS WORD IS!! ​@t abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/missouri-town-decides-savages-mascot-ditch-logo-77069702

Federal reserve just prints money. If the US economy collapses, the entire world goes to shit. Pretty sure the rules don't want that

The anology of making the minimum payment but keep using the credit didn't make sense in the first place. As long as we make the minimum payment, nothing happens. We do it with the fucked up student loan system every month LOL

The National Debt is like: I used the debt to destroy the debt.

lmao

Last part of video omg it's too nasty makes me wanna puke- disturbing how media wanna brainwash

TRILLIONS WENT TO WORLD WAR 2,,,,,VIETNAM,,,,, IRAQ,,,, AFGHANISTAN,,,,,, EX PALESTINE,, NOW ISRAEL EVERY YEAR BILLIONS,,,,, DICTATORS CORRUPT OFFICIALS,,,,,, DEMOCRACY IS JUST A MAKE UP, RESPECT MORROCO

When we all get excited when he starts reciting a Ted Cruz poem :D

Republicans are really worried about leaving a better world for their children except when it comes to climate change

That's a hot take on some Julia Quinn novels, John.

So.....keep right on spending? What's the worst that could happen. :)

True story so many fake republicans. I didn’t know that about Reagan but it appears there is no hope for us. Bring back Clinton!

"Improve schools so we can become a more skilled LABOR FORCE"

More people would die for lack of UN Action to nominate pandemic Czar. A. On Oct 22, 2020, WHO-JHU reported Corona Deaths Rates, in %, cf. below, the sole global scientific index of pandemic in ~180 countries, which was 2.75%. On ELECTION DAY, TRUMP lowered these values to 1.75%, 1.69 on Jan 30, then went up, Today, Apr 14, it is 1.80, cf. below, B. Fauci had daily published record high US Covid-19-Case-NUMBERS, CCN, which reflect reported NUMBERS of those identified for treatment, while suppressing the sole scientific WHO-CDR-INDEX, in %, for ~180 countries, despite our daily protests, knowingly so affecting frightened voters, and the results are known. C. UNDER INT'L LAW the sole body to mandate WHO Global Pandemic CZAR in global billions war against abating Cor/Variants is UN Security Council, because of Cor/Variants' global interconnectedness of ~180 countries. D. HIGHLY INFECTED-COUNTRIES v. UN-CZAR NEED, Less Politics. Life Expectancy Ranking v. WHO-JHU Apr-14/21-CDR% v. (Jan 30/21), e.g. [75] MXC 9.19(8.51) [146] SDN 6.85(6.75) [109] SYR 6.81(6.68) [54] CN 5.13(5.18) [66] BRZ 2.63(2.44) [103] RUS 2.23(2.11) E. US, EUROPE INFECTED-COUNTRIES, Id. e.g. [5] ITL 3.03(3.47) [15] GRC 3.01(3.70) [25] UK 2.91(2.77) [25 ] GRM 2.62(2.59) [6] SP 2.27(2.07) [20] PRTG 2.04(1.70) [12] FR 2.03(2.40) [35] U.S.1.80(1.69) [3] SWS 1.67(1.80) [11] SWD 1.56() [15] NL 1.23(1.43) [22] FIN 1.06(1.50) F. GLOBALLY LOWEST INFECTED COUNTRIES, Id. e.g. [4] SNGP 0.05(0.05) [114] BUTN 0.11(0.12) [126] MNGL 0.16(0.11) [33] MLDV 0.26(0.32) [49] TLND 0.28(0.43) [41] UAE 0.31(0.28) [93] CAY 0.38(0.51) [93] SYCL 0.54(0.26) [43] CURC 0.65(0.44) [28] CYP 0.62(0.64) [51] SLNK 0.63(0.49) [112] USBK 0.74(0.79) [9] ISR 0.75 (0.74) [34] BRB 0.79(0.79) [37] CUBA 0.54(0.83) [54] BORA 0.76(0.73) [72] ARUB 0.91(0.85) G. CONCLUSIONS 1) LEGALLY, ONLY UN MANDATED CZAR MAY END GLOBAL COR/VAR SPREAD. 2) More people would die for lack of ~180 countries UN-Pandemic Czar. 3) KNOWINGLY, FAUCI ALLEGEDLY AFFECTED US-ELECTION. Results are known. 4) 5-Months Corona History-Trends in 114 countries LISTS by clicking name & search. 5) Copyrights: Benjamin Gal-Or, David Galor Apr 14 2021.

I hate how bias John clearly is now, at least some republicans admit they are bias. Democrats and republicans can shove it I stg

What I understand as the basic reason why US didn't become Greece is because your economy fell at a time when so did everybody's, so basically the net effect was zero. However, if it had fell when rest of the countries were booming, well then you'd have been pretty much fucked. So this pandemic was actually a blessing in disguise for you.

Life Expectancy Ranking v. WHO-JHU Corona Deaths Ratios Trending-Ranking v. Alleged US Coverup v. Need of WHO-PANDEMIC-CZAR of ~180 Countries A. On Oct 22, 2020, WHO-JHU reported Corona Deaths Rates, in %, cf. below, the sole global scientific index of pandemic in ~180 countries, which was 2.75%. On ELECTION DAY, TRUMP lowered these values to 1.75%, 1.69 on Jan 30, then went up, Today, Apr 14, it is 1.80, cf. below, B. Fauci had daily published record high US Covid-19-Case-NUMBERS, CCN, which reflect reported NUMBERS of those identified for treatment, while suppressing the sole scientific WHO-CDR-INDEX, in %, for ~180 countries, despite our daily protests, knowingly so affecting frightened voters, and the results are known. C. UNDER INT'L LAW the sole body to mandate WHO Global Pandemic CZAR in global billions war against abating Cor/Variants is UN Security Council, because of Cor/Variants' global interconnectedness of ~180 countries. D. HIGHLY INFECTED-COUNTRIES v. UN-CZAR NEED, Less Politics. Life Expectancy Ranking v. WHO-JHU Apr-14/21-CDR% v. (Jan 30/21), e.g. [75] MXC 9.19(8.51) [146] SDN 6.85(6.75) [109] SYR 6.81(6.68) [54] CN 5.13(5.18) [66] BRZ 2.63(2.44) [103] RUS 2.23(2.11) E. US, EUROPE INFECTED-COUNTRIES, Id. e.g. [5] ITL 3.03(3.47) [15] GRC 3.01(3.70) [25] UK 2.91(2.77) [25 ] GRM 2.62(2.59) [6] SP 2.27(2.07) [20] PRTG 2.04(1.70) [12] FR 2.03(2.40) [35] U.S.1.80(1.69) [3] SWS 1.67(1.80) [11] SWD 1.56() [15] NL 1.23(1.43) [22] FIN 1.06(1.50) F. GLOBALLY LOWEST INFECTED COUNTRIES, Id. e.g. [4] SNGP 0.05(0.05) [114] BUTN 0.11(0.12) [126] MNGL 0.16(0.11) [33] MLDV 0.26(0.32) [49] TLND 0.28(0.43) [41] UAE 0.31(0.28) [93] CAY 0.38(0.51) [93] SYCL 0.54(0.26) [43] CURC 0.65(0.44) [28] CYP 0.62(0.64) [51] SLNK 0.63(0.49) [112] USBK 0.74(0.79) [9] ISR 0.75 (0.74) [34] BRB 0.79(0.79) [37] CUBA 0.54(0.83) [54] BORA 0.76(0.73) [72] ARUB 0.91(0.85) G. CONCLUSIONS 1) LEGALLY, ONLY UN MANDATED CZAR MAY END GLOBAL COR/VAR SPREAD. 2) KNOWINGLY, FAUCI ALLEGEDLY AFFECTED US-ELECTION. Results are known. 3) 5-Months Corona History-Trends in 114 countries LISTS by clicking name & search. 4) Copyrights: Benjamin Gal-Or, David Galor Apr 14 2021.//

This show is great at N of 1 research.

I got it. On a personal level to all of you satisfied customers. How does your debt feel? Good? Saving? Good? Then God Bless you. Your getting more of it. Don't let this idiot tell you the outcome is better for you. Love America.

ti84+ce

Luxembourg 19% National Debt Switzerland 33% National Debt Denmark 35% National Debt Norway 37% National Debt United States 82% National Debt and climbing, you have almost no money (but debt) hence the USA is a poor country, with old decaying infrastructures you cannot replace (only by more debt), bad healthcare system and adding more debt will only make things worse. And democrats and republicans will keep blaming each other, they are both responsible for the mismanagement of the country. "The cure to socialism incompetence is more socialism" only said by socialists. You are slowly going the "socialist" ever more debt path like France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain aka the poor countries of Europe with old decaying infrastructures, ever rising crime problems, etc. Also the illusion, you will get ever lasting growth to pay for National Debt Interests is blocked by the decreasing childbirth rates in every rich country in the World. A nd at one time you will run out of people and companies to tax because at one point the tax % will be at the highest liveable possible. And the next generation is not the one who will pay the price of national debt but the generations in hundred years from now who will judge you as fools as you judge the Neanderthals as an underdeveloped society.

History books and our descendants (hundreds and thousand years from now) will judge us on our national debt that we gave them all because people live way above the living standard they should. And John with current living standards, no one will pay the debt back. And the National Debt curve proofs that since Obama the debt is higher. To whom goes the yearly paid interest of the debt. Luxembourg 19% National Debt Switzerland 33% National Debt Denmark 35% National Debt Norway 37% National Debt United States 82% National Debt and climbing, you have almost no money (but debt) hence the USA is a poor country, with old decaying infrastructures you cannot replace (only by more debt), bad healthcare system and adding more debt will only make things worse. And democrats and republicans will keep blaming each other, they are both responsible for the mismanagement of the country. "The cure to socialism incompetence is more socialism" only said by socialists. You are slowly going the "socialist" ever more debt path like France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain aka the poor countries of Europe with old decaying infrastructures, ever rising crime problems, etc. Also the illusion, you will get ever lasting growth to pay for National Debt Interests is blocked by the decreasing childbirth rates in every rich country in the World. A nd at one time you will run out of people and companies to tax because at one point the tax % will be at the highest liveable possible. And the next generation is not the one who will pay the price of national debt but the generations in hundred years from now who will judge you as fools as you judge the Neanderthals as an underdeveloped society.

In Sep 2012 Romney said he'd cut spending that isn't worth China paying for it. Of course as a Republican he was NEVER allowed to ask what spending is worth raising taxes on the most wealthy. That's off limits. foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/24/romneys-litmus-test-for-federal-programs-is-it-worth-a-chinese-loan/ [I’m going to look at every federal program and I’ll ask this question, "Is this so - program so critical it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?" And if it doesn’t pass that test, I’m going to eliminate the program because we just can’t afford to keep spending more money than we take in. This is, this is something which is not just bad economics. I think it’s immoral. ]

So the moral of the story is, "Democrats suck at deficit spending, but so do Republicans". I could not agree more. It's why I left both parties and became a Libertarian. We need sanity on spending and we're not getting it from either of the two big parties. And I agree that up to a certain point, debt and deficits don't matter. But surely we can all agree that after a certain point, debt is ALL that matters. All you need is a calculator and just a basic understanding of interest rates. History is not on our side on this, and this segment does not help. Sorry John.

SOVEREIGN DEBT is king! Greece did NOT have Sovereign debt. They are more like a US STATE which can overborrow and be unable to make payments. But the US can PRINT money to make interest payments, primarily leading to inflation, which takes spending value away from people who have it (including Boomers in their 70s getting 1% returns on their savings to live without working for the next 25 years until they die.)

this is great comedy ( ).

This is a entertainment show. It’s not all facts because it’s not suppose to be. It’s suppose to be funny to people.

Capitalism loves debt.

Progress for the sake of progress. Open more businesses, log more forests, dam more waterways, mine more minerals, employ more people at starving wages. And why you ask? Progress and low risk.

John the lighting covering your face on the left is one/two tints too bright. It washes everything out in white.

Republicans have no intention of reducing debt. It should not be growing so quickly. We need to set aside money for a sovereign wealth fund to pay for a UBI. We can easily cut 25-35% of our military budget.

So sorry I clicked on this. John Oliver could be the dumbest, most cynical commentator on TV.

LOL when you say nobody fucking really knows why USA didn’t turn into Greece is simple: Cause Greece doesn’t have a fucking money printing machine! If USA wants they can print dollars (yes they generate inflation) but but you have less than 3% inflation every year, if you increase it to 6-8% is not the end of the world. That’s why you get more credits from all over the world, besides USA is one of the world’s biggest customers so why on earth the world wants to see USA in Crisis?. Just my thoughts maybe I’m also clueless

Interest rates are low because they are manipulated by the federal reserve. Buyers act on what they think fed policy will be

This video is grotesquely misleading... But he's not an economist...

I like that pome.. it sums it up.

I think the pandemic has taught people a big lesson, having one stream of income is not really a good idea cause your job doesn't secure your financial needs. The pandemic has really set out business-minded people from the rest that is why I'm so lucky to be among the investors trading with Mrs. Patricia Westbrook as her student it's been success and happiness since the beginning of my trades

We really need to start teaching economics in schools again.

Except John, interest rates will raise and servicing that debt will cut into other programs you otherwise support regardless of how many new taxes are put in. Is Covid-19 a serious problem, yes, so was WW2, of which the US spent just as much money to fight (as percentage of GDP). Now when this Covid-19 is over, will the US dramatically cut that spending too...I doubt it and that will be the looming issue.

While it's true that borrowing money (especially in a crisis) might sometimes be a good idea, the fact alone that no major economies have collapsed so far doesn't console me enough not to try to be as fiscally resonsible as possible. In other words, I would continue using kids to dissuade people from spening too much, at least in the fat years.

Nice counter "but what about the other guys"

The steady decrease of interest rates is the result of federal banks all over the world trying to keep a looming deflation at bay by getting people to spend the money they have instead of saving it.

Topics became a bit dull recently.

Here is how big 1 trillion is. If you count at a pace of 1 per second, it will take you 31,709 years to count up to 1 trillion.

We must ban the news, only because they don't bring us the news, in the following and only the following way : Hello, the time is now...and here are the news : Hoohoohoo ! Hihihi ! Hahaha ! And that's the end of the news.

When are stock buy backs going to be illegal again? Fail US just Fail!

1:07 spent less than 2 minutes making a better poem. borrow borrow borrow you wallow in our sorrow you live today you die tomorrow

Can't know how I bumped onto this. Anyway Awesome clip 🤩🤩🤩. I also watched those rather similar from mStarTutorials and kinda wonder how you guys create these vids. MSTAR TUTORIALS also had cool information about similiar make money online things on his channel.

Cut military funding in half, put that money to paying off the national debt and it is paid off in 3 years. It isn't even really a problem. Even with half the military resources, we could still obliterate the entire planet.

70% of people in the US live in debt.

Comparing the US to Greece is like comparing the lion to the rabbit. If you are the rabbit owing to a pack of lions you are in trouble. If you are the lion owing to a herd of rabbits that's a different story. To paraphrase Mao Zedong a little bit, "Economical power grows out of the barrel of a gun"

yes and No lol

Stop worrying about the debt and start worrying about climate change.

Not big debt. 23 trillions. Apple is worth 2 trillions. And US has the dollars printing machine.

Really awful... people like this? What’s the matter with you America? You suck

Explanation for declining interest rate: International Mafia preparing to suddenly raise interest rates to use as leverage for future GREEEEEEEDY DEMANDS.

professor duncan?

It's almost like we made up a bunch of tangentially connected numbers with no basis in material reality , let people play with them, replaced those people with software bots and then just kinda pretended a bunch of people calling themselves economists knew how it worked.