When Trump announced a new round of tariffs, I asked my chatbot, ChatGPT, if free trade with no tariffs would benefit the United States?
ChatGPT: International free trade benefits everyone.
Steve: How?
ChatGPT: Sweden makes magnificent machinery and nuclear reactors that they sell to other countries. That enables Sweden to buy what these countries make best–TVs from Japan, textiles from China, tin from Brazil, and taxi drivers from Uzbekistan.
Steve: So, every country sells products they make best and then free trade permits everyone to get the best of everything.
ChatGPT: Exactly. America buys the best merchandise that each country produces — furs from Russia, sherry from Spain, watches from Switzerland, and Mafiosi from Italy.
Steve: What does the United State sell to other countries? What product do we make best?
ChatGPT: Debt.
Steve: Debt?
ChatGPT: Yes, debt. The United States makes the best debt in the world.
Steve: So other countries sell us TV’s, sherry, and watches and we sell them debt?
ChatGPT: Right. Last year we sold six-hundred billion dollars’ worth of debt to other countries. Belgium alone bought $120 billion of US debt.
Steve: Couldn’t Belgium manufacture their own debt?
ChatGPT: Belgium makes fifth-rate debt. They are incompetent borrowers. They are better off selling pharmaceutical products to America and buying our superbly crafted debt.
Steve: Why do we make the best debt?
ChatGPT: America’s debt productivity is the highest in the world. Last year we ran a trade deficit of $901 billion. That’s $6,700 for each household in the U.S.
Steve: Is that good?
ChatGPT: That is great productivity. The French try to compete with us in debt production, but their trade deficit was a paltry $1,344 per household. US debt productivity is five times that of France.
Steve: What explains the United States’ extraordinary debt productivity?
ChatGPT: Culture, technology and government.
Steve: Culture?
ChatGPT: Culture enables our debt to thrive. We invented home equity loans, auto loans, and variable rate mortgages. In 2007 we sliced and diced $12.9 trillion in sub-prime loans and rated them AAA. We fostered Enron, Bernie Madoff, and Lehman Brothers. These and other greats will be celebrated in Trump’s latest D.C. project, “The Debt Hall of Fame.”
America also invented credit cards; the average American carries $6,595 in credit card debt. U.S. household debt has reached a record $18.8 trillion. Debt service consumes 30% of a typical family’s income.
Steve: Sounds like the banks are doing well.
ChatGPT: Adjusted for inflation, bank debt swelled from $18 trillion in 2015 to $39 trillion in 2025. Is this doing well?
Steve: I thought the banks had money. Why do they need to borrow it?
ChatGPT: They borrow it to loan it to corporations. Corporate debt increased from $12.5 trillion in 2015 to over $22.1 trillion by 2025.
Steve: Can’t our government stop this lunacy?
ChatGPT: Are you kidding? US government debt soared from $18 trillion in 2015 to $38 trillion in 2025. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast that the US debt-to-GDP ratio will increase by 75% within the next thirty years.
After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act but before the war on Iran, the CBO projected this year’s federal government revenues at $5.6 trillion and spending at $7.4 trillion.
If you believe the administration, the war with Iran has cost the U.S. $37.5 billion so far, and they are asking Congress for an additional $67 billion to $87 billion in emergency funding. Not content to rest on its debt production laurels, the administration is pushing for a massive $1.5 trillion total defense budget for fiscal year 2027, a 43% increase over last year.
Steve: Is this an efficient use of money?
ChatGPT: Even before the Iran war the US spent more on military than the next six highest countries. The US did win one of the last six wars it fought, a victory in the First Iraq War. The US lost or tied in Korea, Vietnam, the Second Iraq War, Afghanistan, and Iran. If the US spent less on military, it could have lost them all.
Steve: How will we ever pay this back?
ChatGPT: Our expertise is debt production and debt marketing. We have no experience in paying it off. When today’s debts come due, we will simply borrow more. The United States must stick with what it does best!
Discover more from Post Alley
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
