Ballooning federal debt is straining private economy in US
The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond has climbed back to where it stood in 2007, north of 5%, and it pushed a little higher again last week after the Federal Reserve left its own rates alone. On its face, that sounds almost reassuring, a return to some pre-crisis normal. It is nothing of the sort. The same number today carries a very different, and far heavier, meaning than it did 19 years ago. In 2007, the federal debt held by the public was roughly $9 trillion. Today it is about four times that. A yield is simply the price of borrowing, and paying the 2007 price on four times the ...