Hey Andrew, I typed up a thoughtful response, but the Medium editor crashed in Chrome.

So I'll just say, I did read your article, and I wasn't convinced that situations like the "European debt crisis" are similar to the reality experienced by countries that issue their own fiat currency. In particular, the US has an advantage in terms of being the world's reserve currency. Of course, we can debate whether there is indeed high inflation currently (overvaluation in the stock market not captured by CPI), and I actually love the shadow metrics -- particularly shadow unemployment.

While it seems obvious that excessive debt-to-GDP would diminish GDP growth, it doesn't seem to eliminate real GDP growth -- according to the article you linked. Thanks for the good read though. I genuinely appreciate your thoughtful and detailed response.

I'm not sure what the need was for a hostile and insulting tone, but congratulation on your personal finance success. I think it's insulting that you'd suggest that I prefer having a negative net worth. I'd encourage some empathy for the billions of people in economic distress because of the current worldwide depression -- as well as the millions who enter professions that are a poor economic investment "for the love of helping others." PT school typically costs $130,000-$200,000 in student loans (6-8% APR) with starting salaries around $60,000. Not everyone enters finance like you and Tim Denning.

If I could share some contrarian opinions, I might point you toward

1) https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/voodoo-gets-even-voodooier/

2) https://marker.medium.com/paul-krugman-on-the-bad-economic-ideas-that-refuse-to-die-29d2e958f63 or

3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory

I entirely agree that reading other points of view is quite productive. But I also think it's a harmful myth to a society with a weak social safety net (the US) that national debt is the least bit like personal debt. Tim lives in Australia, a country with a fantastic social safety net, and he has written about his stress over the idea of losing his job. He said he'd only have 4 weeks to find a new one. Well, in the US, I've experienced unemployment repeatedly as a physical therapist, every time as a consequence of asking for better working conditions. Unfortunately, getting fired prohibits you from getting unemployment -- and I was never once given advanced notice. That's why I think it's toxic for Tim to write that "country debt is sooo bad OMG" when economic theory isn't even clear on that point (for countries that issue fiat currency).