Friedberg claims 63 percent of Americans have negative equity with more debt than assets and no economic mobility.
“They have more debt than they have assets and everything's getting more expensive and no one's moving up the economic ladder. There's no mobility anymore.”
Friedberg states California faces 250 billion to 1 trillion dollars in unpaid retirement obligations making it functionally bankrupt.
“And I'm talking about somewhere between 250,000,000,000 and $1,000,000,000,000. California is bankrupt. That is a major Right. Fact that is completely ignored by”
Friedberg states US has $40 trillion debt, $2 trillion deficit, with $1 trillion just in interest payments.
“We have $40,000,000,000,000 of debt and we're gonna have a $2,000,000,000,000 deficit this year. A trillion dollars of that is just interest on the existing debt. That number is getting bigger and bigger every year.”
Friedberg cites California's $18B deficit and up to $1T pension shortfall alongside US $40T debt problem.
“That money has to come from somewhere. The United States is 40,000,000,000,000 in debt. We're burning 1,500,000,000,000, maybe 2,000,000,000,000 a year.”
Friedberg states the US has $33 trillion national debt and a proposed $7 trillion budget next year.
“We are proposing the federal administration is proposing a $7,000,000,000,000 budget next year. We have $33,000,000,000,000 of national debt.”
Friedberg calculates refinancing half of U.S. debt at higher rates adds $300 billion in annual interest payments.
“And when that happens, you know, 2% increase in interest on $15,000,000,000,000 that's another $300,000,000,000 of interest payments a year.”
Friedberg warns the US is already paying a trillion dollars annually just in interest on federal debt.
“And this year, we're already paying a trillion dollars just in interest on the debt that the federal government owes to its bondholders, to the people that own treasuries.”