Government debt is a subject that is terribly misunderstood by many so-called economists and, a fortiori, the great majority of the populace.
Hillsdale economics professor Robert Murphy here does a marvelous job of debunking some of the main misconceptions about government debt. I especially like his destruction of the notion that government borrowing “transfers” wealth from the future to the present. It doesn’t. Rather, by interfering with the accumulation of capital and the efficient use of resources, government borrowing means less prosperity than otherwise for most people in the present and everyone in the future.
