The net worth of the U.S. federal government comes in at negative $21.5 trillion.
This according to the Financial Report of the United States Government recently released by the U.S. Treasury Department.
The report is a summary of the financial condition of the United States. In a nutshell, it’s less than ideal.
Total net worth — the country’s assets minus its liabilities — is just one of many disturbing data points you will find in the report.
The US government owns $3.8 trillion in assets. The largest asset is $1.4 trillion in “net loans receivable.” These are primarily government-backed student loans totaling $1.08 trillion. In an article published by Sovereign Man, Simon Black it neatly into perspective.
“In other words, the government’s #1 asset is the debt owed to it by young people across America. That’s pretty sad.”
Meanwhile, the government’s liabilities total more than $25 trillion. This includes the national debt, accrued interest, and federal employee and veteran benefits.
The overall trend isn’t encouraging either. In fact, the government’s net worth is on a steadily downward trajectory. Republicans want to blame Obama for the country’s abysmal fiscal situation, but the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress did exactly zero to reverse the trend. The government’s negative net worth was -20.3 trillion in 2017, -19.3 trillion in 2016, -18.2 trillion in 2015, and -17.7 trillion in 2014.
When you include the government’s estimate of Social Security’s unfunded liabilities, the country’s net worth drops to negative $75 trillion. Black notes that this is roughly the size of the entire global economy.
It seems a bit of an understatement when the Treasury Department calls current US fiscal policy “not sustainable.”
The long-term fiscal projections indicate that the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio will rise from 78 percent in 2018 to 530 percent over the 75-year projection period, and will continue to rise thereafter, if current policy is kept in place. The projections in this Financial Report show that current policy is not sustainable. These projections assume that current policy will continue indefinitely, and are, therefore, neither forecasts nor predictions. Nevertheless, policy changes must be enacted so that financial outcomes will be different than those projected.”
Keep in mind, the government uses a conservative debt to GDP ratio. Many analysts say the ratio already stands at 105%.
In fiscal 2018, Uncle Sam showed a net loss of $1.16 trillion. The federal government collected $3.4 trillion in tax revenue, but it spent over $4.5 trillion.
Nearly half of government spending went to Social Security and Medicare.
The government spent $523 billion paying interest on the national debt.
During fiscal year 2018, the budget deficit increased by 17.0% and gross cost increased by 4.4%.
For Fiscal Year 2018, the government reported $581 billion in equipment (mostly military), and about $500 billion in real estate.
This article was originally published at SchiffGold.
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