When the gold price is soaring, we should all be afraid

BusinessMarketsGlobal economyOpinionBy Kamal AhmedApril 14, 2025 — 7.30pm, registeror subscribeto save articles for later.Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.America owes the world $US36 trillion ($57 trillion). Its national debt is bigger than the sum of all it produces each year by almost £10 trillion ($21 trillion), a number so large it defies public comprehension. The country spends more on debt interest payments than it does on defence – a historically unusual position. Medicare and social security outstrip resources focused on tanks and guns.In 1984, after Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts spurred growth to 7.2 per cent, America’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 38 per cent. It is now at 122 per cent, higher than during the Second World War and 50 percentage points above the figure the World Bank believes increases default risk, at least for lesser mortals. Only COVID-19 obliged the federal government to borrow more.The world...