The recent Economic Watch blog post on national debt quoted AIER Research Associate Keming Liang. The section referencing Liang’s quote appears below.

The United States’ national debt has hit a historic peak. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the federal debt has reached its highest level since World War II – 83 percent.

In 1929, the national debt was just 16 percent of GDP. With the onset of the Great Depression and World War II, national debt swelled to 122 percent of GDP in fewer than two decades. Yet, the country quickly rebounded. A guaranteed revenue stream and a historic tendency toward economic growth have given the United States government ability to overcome high debt.

But can government display the same resiliency this time around?

“We were able to increase our GDP and increase exports after the World War,” said economist Keming Liang, a research associate for the American Institute for Economic Research.

But now, “We have all the problems of government spending,” he said. “The baby boomers qualify for Social Security. That is a substantial thing for the government to fund.”

“China and other countries have expressed concern about whether the level of U.S. debt is sustainable,” Liang said. “We should be concerned about how sustainable this borrowing could be and how far it could go.”

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