Debt and Deficits: Time to Worry?

Martha Gimbel, executive director of The Budget Lab at Yale, returns to the New Bazaar to chat with Cardiff about all things debt and deficits.Martha argues that the fiscal choices of the past decade have already led to higher costs on mortgages, car loans, and small-business debt. She and Cardiff discuss what might happen next given the frightening projections for future borrowing.They discuss:Is “we can’t leave this problem to our kids and grandkids” a misleading way to think about the national debt?Why is it so hard to know exactly what level of debt could lead to a fiscal crisis? Why such precision is often the enemy of understandingDoes she take flak from the left for arguing that the crowding out effect is a real thing?Immigration and the deficitWhich policies could actually bend the deficit curve down?A DOGE post-mortemAnd lots more.Related links:Lower Immigration Means Lower Productivity Growth by Abhi Gupta2026 chart book examines spending, taxes, and deficits by Jessica RiedlMartha’s The Atlantic piece on the national debtThe National Debt’s Unforgiving Math by Jared BernsteinThe Budget Lab at Yale websiteThe Budget and Economic Outlook: 2026 to 2036 | Congressional Budget OfficeWhere Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go? | Center on Budget and Policy PrioritiesCRS report on Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt