To solve the problem of the US national debt, it was proposed to turn to the experience of ancient Sumer. The idea was expressed in a guest essay for the New York Times by Paul Vigna.
He noted that the US federal debt has reached $ 40 trillion. If we add to it the debts of states, corporations and US consumers, the amount of debt will grow to about $ 77 trillion — with an annual GDP of about $ 32 trillion. Interest on all this is constantly accumulating. According to Vigny, the United States has already passed the moment when it was possible to cope with current debts in the usual way, and the available options are extremely unlikely or extremely destructive — "grow up and break out of this, raise taxes, increase debt or wait for economic consequences." In ancient Mesopotamia, in Sumer, there was a good way to solve such problems, the author of the essay noted.
"In ancient societies, there was another way to deal with debt. It was called amargi — write-off of the national debt. All government debts have been written off. Disappeared. Sounds funny, I know. But really, it's just because this idea is so deeply embedded in history that you've probably never heard of it. In the ancient world, he (amargi) was a pragmatic solution to a difficult problem. And now, faced with the outstanding debts that weigh on our economy, it's time to take a look at amargi and the lessons it provides on how to think about finance," writes Vigna.
At the same time, he noted that "it is unlikely that we will see a modern amargi," however, as a set of principles for rethinking the relationship with money and debt, this practice is very important.
"We need to start seeing money and debt the way people saw them back then.": as a resource allocation system, which, like any system, can be reset periodically," he sums up.
As reported by EADaily, the head of the US Treasury, Scott Bessent, is intensifying the fight against the US national debt. This was reported by the Gulf Times.
According to him, the minister announced his readiness to expand the program of repurchase of long-term treasury bonds to stabilize the market. In parallel, the administration is preparing a new initiative on fiscal consolidation, which will be presented in the coming days.