The U.S. Federal Debt Hits $40 Trillion

The U.S. GNP in 2025 had been $30.77 trillion (nominal). Even though that represents a real growth rate of 2.1 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total dollar-amount of economic output of the bloc was almost $10 trillion lower than the total federal debt, and this does not count the respective debts of the member-states. In fiscal year 2025, the net-interest paid on the federal debt amounted to $970 billion, which translates into nearly 20 percent of the federal government’s revenue and exceeded the $917 billion in defense spending. The milestone of $40 trillion in federal debt, reached on August 19, 2026, can thus be put into perspective at the federal level of government. It is no wonder that Europeans had been raising concerns regarding the issuance of federal debt by which the E.U. could aid Ukraine militarily.

The full essay is at "The U.S. Federal Debt Hits $40 Trillion."

California and Florida: Different Political Cultures in the U.S.

As evinced by Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney likening a planned referendum on whether Alberta should vote to separate from the rest of Canada to “Brexit,” in which Britain seceded from the E.U., as if the UK in the European Union were equivalent to Alberta in Canada, political category mistakes can run rampant without being detected as such. Referring to the referendum in the province, Carney said, “That is a very dangerous bluff.” He was “pointing to the turmoil that followed the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union.”[1] The implied false equivalence of Canada and the E.U., as if the former too had been formed out of countries, is as incorrect as that which Carney was more directly assuming between Alberta and Britain. A region of a country, even if the latter has a federal system, is not equivalent to a country that joins a political union such as the E.U. and U.S. That Britain was once the host kingdom in the British Empire, and thus equivalent to other members of the empire, including Ireland and Virginia, does not mean that the UK as a state in the E.U. was equivalent to the latter, or to other political unions consisting of early-modern-scale countries.

The full essay is at "California and Florida."

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1. Mike Blanchfield and Sue Allan, “Carney Warms Alberta Not to Pull a “Brexit,” Politico, May 25, 2026.

Executive Compensation Tied to Firm Performance: A Critique

With robust economies in America boosting companies’ sales, corporate tax cuts, and an increase in stock buybacks lifting stock prices in 2018, the default mantra in executive compensation circles that high CEO pay is justified if it is tied to firm performance could be questioned. Similarly, the typical assumption that high pay would have to get higher for a CEO to be motivated to do the basics of the job, including overseeing mergers and acquisitions, (or that doing the basics warrants a raise) could be questioned. Particularly in 2018, the comfortable, self-serving ways of the business elite in the U.S. were ripe for critique.

The full essay is at "Executive Compensation Tied to Company Performance."

Other Priorities and Side-Shows Eclipsing a Historical Debate on the U.S. Government's Deficits and Debt

Writing in November of 2010, Fareed Zakaria opined that the “fate of the U.S.” would be decided “over the next year.” In truth, the fates may have pronounced their verdict on the “city on the hill” long before the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Denial can be a strong palliative in the midst of a pattern of sustained lapses in self-disciple and civic virtue—qualities that the American Founding Fathers had presumed are necessary to any viable republic.

The full essay is at "Other Priorities."

Democracy and the Courts: Alternative Checks on Austerity in Greece

In May 2011, “Athens agreed to impose a new $9 billion round of tax increases and spending cuts and speed up nearly $75 billion in promised privatizations.” In early June, a new round of tightening was being planned by the Greek government. It was feared that those cuts would deepen the recession and thus further shrink the tax base, making it even harder for the government to cut its deficit. Meanwhile, Reuters reported, “Greeks are showing signs of reaching the limits of their endurance as budget cuts imposed under Greece's first bailout a year ago have helped to push unemployment close to 16 percent.” The news service cited police reports of more than 80,000 people packing the main Syntagma square outside parliament on June 6^th—the 12^th consecutive day of protesting there.

                                              Reuters

The full essay is at "Democracy and the Courts: On Austerity."

Leadership at Goldman Sachs: Mice or Men?

Inevitably, with any focus comes the opportunity cost of the benefits that could have come from alternative agendas. Put another way, a sustained focus on particular trees means losing the benefits that go with looking at the forest as a whole. One might ask whether Wall Street bankers, even those in lofty positions, are too focused on marginal differences even as the bankers stay away from operational oversight. Goldman Sachs, being led by a former trader, may have been a case in point as 2012 succumbed to 2013.

The full essay is in Cases of Unethical Business, which is available at Amazon.

The Payroll Tax Cut: A Luxury?

As U.S. deficits and thus the federal government's debt had been increasing since the Clinton Administration in the late 1990s, proposals for a payroll tax-cut entailed risking the financial condition of the U.S. Government. To be sure, increasing government spending above inflation was risky too. Here, though, tax policy as it relates to deficits, and thus debt, is analyzed. 

The full essay is at "The Payroll Tax Cut."