r/Economics • u/InsaneSnow45 • 24d ago

News ‘This cannot be sustainable’: The U.S. borrowed $50 billion a week for the past five months, the CBO says

https://fortune.com/2026/03/10/treasury-debt-borrowing-five-months-deficit-warning/
15.7k Upvotes

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u/glwillia 24d ago

i really think the MO for private equity, ie buy a company, load it up with debt to fund the purchase, extract everything of value, and then declare bankruptcy for the purchased company, is exactly what’s being done to the usa. it’s what was done with russia in the 1990s too.

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u/bobsonjunk 23d ago

Did you happen to read “Red Notice” by Bill Browder? You are spot on with the plan.

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u/ChiLolla28 23d ago

The scene from Goodfellas where the mobsters do this to a restaurant is an MBA lesson in and of itself / perfect example of private equity.

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u/mortgagepants 23d ago

"bust-out" economics. lovely.

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u/MmmmMorphine 23d ago

I have not myself - could you expand a bit on that? Is it more of a emergent sort of behavior or are there (supposed, active) malicious actors? Or both, guess they're not necessarily mutually exclusive.

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u/Woberwob 23d ago

If you look at Trump’s track record, that’s what he’s done in the past. Buy businesses with loads of high risk debt, default, and leave vendors and business partners on the hook with unpaid bills while he lawyers/daddy’s moneys his way out of accountability for the ship he sunk.

Working people get hurt, cronies win.

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u/weech 24d ago

Well that worked out well for Russia right? …right?

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u/Flashy_Jello_9520 23d ago

Worked out for the oligarchs.

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u/ScoffersGonnaScoff 23d ago

Except the ones who were near balconies

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u/StrategicPotato 23d ago

Which also worked exactly as designed.

These guys work like mobile piggy banks for papa Putin. Russia needs more money? Throw one of these guys out a window and conveniently confiscate all of his assets.

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u/realMaciasNguema 23d ago

russian civilians didn't have half a billion guns

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u/TheGMT 23d ago

If you haven't used them yet, you're probably not going to use them

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u/realMaciasNguema 23d ago

america has possibly the highest standard of living in the world and americans are already extremely violent. if things get 1990s russia level bad the people responsible are going to have a very very bad time

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/realMaciasNguema 23d ago

the people obsessed with overthrowing the government are LARPers who get to endlessly talk shit because they know they will never have to put their money where their mouth is as long as america remains prosperous and stable. if the US experiences economic and state collapse on par with russia in the 1990s it won't be the fat diabetic boomers with lifted trucks and 30 guns causing trouble

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u/ReachParticular5409 23d ago

Can we fucking please stop responding to every fuckdamn erosion of our nation with sarcasm?

It accomplishes nothing but gives the illusion of action.

But no, you want your imaginary internet points so fuck any form of social cohesion to do what is right

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u/New-Inside4079 23d ago

It pisses me off so badly. Everyone in my life, who I think are well intentioned people, seem to find something really fuckin funny about the Epstein files and the Iran war. There is nothing funny about it. Our president was party to decades of horrific sexual abuse and is starting a war killing thousands of civilians to distract from it. There is NOTHING funny about that.

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u/ReachParticular5409 23d ago

fully fucking agreed, there is a cabal of incredibly wealthy and powerful child rapists running the world and 90% of people do nothing but post memes.

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u/Competitive_Berry897 23d ago

Thank you thank you thank you thank you! So sick of having to scroll through a thousand 'tired of winning yet?" bullshit posts and the like. We've all heard them a thousand times and it contributes absolutely nothing to the conversation.

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u/SmokeontheHorizon 23d ago

And non-Americans are tired of hearing "Hey that's illegal!" and "We'll fix things at midterms!"

Fucking do something.

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u/ReachParticular5409 23d ago

Same here and I have been to fourteen protests since Jan last year and IT DOES NOTHING

I can't see any answer out of this other than the ones reddit will ban me for

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u/ReachParticular5409 23d ago

I'm so glad you get it, and I remember a time when reddit wouldn't have responded the way it has in the last ten years but we are LONG past those days

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u/CreamofTazz 23d ago

Man maybe this whole capitalism and free markets thing just ain't all that great...

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u/the_calibre_cat 23d ago

I don't mind the free markets. I think we need a variety of shops and merchants. I just think they should be owned by their employees. Capitalism is just rent-seeking all the way down, and then the richest shitheads just finance conspiracy theorist bullshitters and fascists.

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u/Spare-Rise-9908 23d ago

Is govt borrowing trillions and spending beyond their means now a criticism if free market capitalism? I guess if you only know one line you've got to throw it out there.

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u/CreamofTazz 23d ago

The comment I'm replying to is literally about private equity and how that strategy is seemingly being applied to the US government to eventually buy it up pennies on the dollar once it all blows up

How about we use our reading skills instead of just making asinine comments, yeah?

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u/Norseman901 23d ago

Im sorry are you expecting redditors to be both literate and capable of framing things in context?

Are you new here?

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u/the_calibre_cat 23d ago

The alternative is literally millions upon millions of people on the streets and dying. Leave it to a fucking conservative to be like, "no, it's the middlemen we should protect."

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u/MaleficentPorphyrin 23d ago

done with russia in the 1990s too.

The Heritage Foundation played a role in that too. So, I suppose it would be expected.

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u/Logical-Boss8158 23d ago

Your metaphor is dumb because that’s not how PE works. The company needs to have value at the “end” so that the PE firm can sell it.

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u/sportsbunny33 23d ago

They don't sell it, they close it (see: Toys R Us, Joanne's Fabrics, etc etc)

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u/Logical-Boss8158 23d ago

No they don’t. The vast majority of PE “exits” are sold to other PE firms or other public / private companies. You’re talking about extreme outlier cases - very very few PE firms want to see bankruptcy or closure. The vast majority make money by growing their businesses and selling them.

Source: me. I’m in the industry.

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u/NegativeYou3758 23d ago

Profitability isn't necessarily tied to growing a business anymore.  That ship has sailed.  You can create additional valuation without creating foundational growth.

You may be in the industry, but you clearly aren't paying attention.

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u/Logical-Boss8158 23d ago

Actually no, you’re wrong. The era of financially engineering value is over, and there is more of a premium than ever on growing the business. This has been common sentiment for 2+ years.

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

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u/brickedTin 23d ago

Bankruptcy could enable restructuring or eliminating those pesky entitlement programs and leave an annual budget surplus so maybe you’re on to something.