55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Debt with More Debt

Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by rdiddly on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:32AM (#17566626)

"This interest includes repaying principal."

Stop right there. Something's fishy with the terminology/math/reasoning then, no? If the "interest" includes principal, then what is the interest? It's like saying "Use one cup of flour and water" or "The size of my penis is 6 feet including my height."

Here's what let's do: subtract the principal from the interest. That should leave you with the interest only. Therefore

I - P = I

Subtract I from both sides...

-P = 0

Divide by -P...

1 = 0

This is the axiom of Black Math.

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Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by Four_Star on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:34AM (#17566645)

That's the way reporting on the repayment of the national debt is done. The point of the article is unchanged. Those familiar with Treasuries will understand

If I run a deficit of 100 dollars, borrow 100 dollars and I repay the loan by borrowing 100 dollars and the interest on both is 10 dollars, than I owe 220 dollars but I only got 100 dollars of real spending.

That is what the article is saying. of the $21.4 trillion in debt, only $14 trillion funded deficits and half of those deficits were the results of rolling debt over.

No funny math at all

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Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by rdiddly on Thursday July 19, 2018 @12:28PM (#17567863)

My point is that it's bad terminology, which I show by proving it leads to bad math. I notice at no point do you refer to the $10 as including part of the $100 in either case, so apparently you agree.

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Re:55% of the US National Debt Is the Result of Repaying Deb... by nerdponx on Thursday July 19, 2018 @10:34AM (#17566646)

s/This interest includes/These payments include

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