The pandemic drove interest rates into the basement. Rates were 0% and our borrowing costs were, in reality, negative: investors were paying us to borrow their money, rather than the other way around. By failing to invest in transformational technology or infrastructure, we failed our children and grandchildren and probably consigned them to a diminished United States. Solar or wind energy on a grand scale to produce baseload power generation for half of the country, hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles, high speed rail, streets that can charge electric vehicles, whatever. All have unambiguous positive externalities and we had the opportunity to lead. In the time of negative interest rates, it would have made perfect sense to borrow borrow borrow and spend spend spend on things that decrease the cost of transactions and provide public good. Things that actually return investment.

Now, interest rates are up again and we lost the opportunity. We're still running deficits despite the excellent economy: UE is persistently low, inflation eased to target, wage growth outpacing inflation. There's no end sight to the deficits. The cost to service our debt is going to crowd out more and more of the federal budget. An albatross around the necks of our children and grandchildren that's probably more like an anaconda.

I'm unsure about the point of my rambling post. I guess I need to vent. I'm just sad to know that the US is inexorably lumbering to decline, yielding power and influence to international kleptocrats and malefactors. The Pax Americana will end with a whimper, and the world will be more dangerous for our kids and grandkids and it just didn't have to be this way. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I just don't see a way out of the political and fiscal morass.