More from the article ...

... Not so great is that developments in recent weeks have put U.S. federal debts and deficits in the broader context of an emerging era of higher global interest rates, stiffer competition for the next dollar of lending, and global geopolitical and demographic headwinds that other countries are also confronting. There may not be a crisis tomorrow, but the idea of a cliff somewhere in the future seems more tangible, a point implicit in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's sudden openness to active intervention to try to cap yields on long-term bonds.

Here are some reasons why this moment seems different:

ECONOMIC GROWTH HAS FALLEN BEHIND BORROWING

From World War Two until the late 2010s, U.S. debt dynamics were helped by the fact that the economy in general grew faster than federal debt, which helped keep borrowing contained relative to the size of the nation's output of goods and services.

That relationship began to shift due to the spending used to counter the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic roughly a decade later.

The sweeping tax cuts pushed by President Donald Trump and passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in his first and second terms in the White House exacerbated the deficits, adding to the total debt pile.

DEFICITS ARE AT RECESSION LEVELS ...

@#1 ... ECONOMIC GROWTH HAS FALLEN BEHIND BORROWING ...

Yeah, imo, that is significant.

This graph puts that view into perspective ...

@#4 ... "The size of the Treasury purchases announced so far by Bessent are trivial in comparison to the size of the overall market, but the [signaling] effect was very powerful," ...

I agree. But maybe not for the same reason.

Sec Bessent's actions seemed to me more as putting a band-aid upon the symptom, but not trying at all to resolve the underlying problem ...

Simply ...

That the US deficit is growing faster than the US economy. (see the graph link in #2)

So, as many Americans are facing, expenditures are increasing faster than income.

That is not a good place to be.

@#3 ... There are no expectations for the USA. We're fucking done. ...

I won't go that far yet.

But Pres Trump does actively seem to be trying to attain that end goal.

For example, recently he has been convincing Canada that they need to establish new trade relations with other Countries because their prior trade relations with the US have now become, well, ... whimsical.