October 7, 2020
Global debt (public + private) = $188Tn. IMF
Once you reach a certain level in a material way, what more can you do? You can’t eat more than three meals a day; you’ll kill yourself. You can’t wear two suits one over the other. You might now have three cars in your garage-but six! Oh, you can indulge yourself, but only to a point.
Story is very complicated. First, because Ricardo himself did not believe in what is now called “Ricardian” equivalence.
Moreover, this view is often misrepresented.
For example, it is a view that is critical of Keynesian economics, but it is not against public debt. It argues that Keynesian stimulus is not efficient.
But this view is also critical of the crowding-out hypothesis, that is often used to criticize public debt and Keynesian economics. (public debt raises interest rates) Therefore, this view also asserts that Tthe debt hawks were wrong.
In order to not get lost in Ricardian Equivalence, think that there are 3 views out there:
One view is the Keynesian view: public debt raises consumption, and thus output.
Another is the neoclassical view: public debt raises interest rates, and crowds out capital accumulation. To that extent, public debt is “debt we leave to our children”: there will be a lower capital stock in the future.
Finally, the Ricardian equivalence view states that both are wrong.
Barro, Robert J. 1974. “Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?” Journal of Political Economy 82 (6): 1095–1117. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1830663.
O’Driscoll, Gerald P. 1977. “The Ricardian Nonequivalence Theorem.” Journal of Political Economy 85 (1): 207–10. https://doi.org/10.1086/260552.
Ricardo, David. 1820. Essays on the Funding System.
Smith, Adam. 1759. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Penguin.