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Fortune

Eva Roytburg

Your political polarization is the reason for our $38 trillion national debt, top economist says: 'it's deeply debilitating' for 'consensus and stability and productive policy results'

Barry Eichengreen United States Fortune National Debt Elon Musk

Barry Eichengreen (Credit: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint via Getty Images)

America’s $38 trillion national debt isn’t really because of bad math or budgeting, top economist Barry Eichengreen says. It isn’t because of interest rates, or an aging population, or even runaway spending, necessarily.

The problem is us. Or more specifically, he told Fortune in an exclusive interview, it’s a polarized political system that reflects, then amplifies, our divisions.

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