Writing the Introductions for City Club’s Weekly Newsletter is the highlight of my week and one of the hardest things I do each week since English is not my native language. Writing a weekly 350-word essay is a process by which I try to research an important topic I do not fully understand, hoping to further my understanding by putting pen to paper and engaging our diverse and thoughtful membership to participate and offer opposing opinions and perspectives.

The recent debt-ceiling negotiation in Washington is one such topic, which to me was a political circus to distract the American public from the real problem: As a nation, we have more debt than the rest of the world combined. The $31.4 trillion that got all the attention in the recent debt ceiling debacle is small potatoes in the context of the additional ~$80 trillion of so-called unfunded liabilities representing Social Security, Medicare, and other programs.

Since no rational person can reasonably argue we could organically grow out of such a gargantuan debt with our $23.6 trillion GDP, the looming question comes down to what follows. What does history tell us?

Debt jubilees date back at least 4,000 years to Babylon where ancient Hebrew kings would sometimes forgive societal debts to secure public stability. Ancient Israelis believed we and our animals should rest on the seventh day, let our land rest and free our indentured slaves on the seventh year, and zero out all debts every 7X7 years, which is nearly half a century.

However it is labeled, the U.S. has previously experienced various forms of default. In 1934, President Roosevelt’s controversial gold program transferred ownership of all monetary gold in the United States to the US Treasury. On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon announced his new economic policy “to create a new prosperity without war,” ending the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates established at the end of World War II.

Add the private consumer debt of $16 trillion to our combined national debt of over $110 trillion, and one can detect a “disturbance in the force” beyond what even our central bank-enabled government can address.

Why are we not facing these facts? What am I missing here? What do you think? Might this be the time for Highland Institute to discuss the prospect of a historical jubilee?

— Sina.