This week, we are back to our ongoing series on capital destruction. Let’s consider the simple transaction of issuing a bond. Party X sells a bond to Party Y. We will first offer something entirely uncontroversial. If the interest rate rises after Y buys the bond, then Y takes a loss. Or if the interest […]
Last week, we discussed Social Security, a Ponzi scheme that is inevitably approaching its default. That leads us to another point in our broader discussion of capital destruction. Let’s illustrate with an example. The Fraudulent Promise Suppose Eric works for wages. He is 50 years old. His house is paid off, he has no student […]
Understanding the marginal productivity of debt is key to understanding whether the amount of credit created is unsustainable, resulting in the failure of the monetary system and loss of everyone’s savings. Falling Productivity of Debt introduces the idea of the marginal productivity of debt, that is, how much additional GDP is added for each newly-borrowed […]
