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Investors have observed that pandemic spending materially worsened the US fiscal outlook and are asking our US strategists about it in nearly every meeting. Although handwringing over the budget deficit is an established tradition, profligate Americans have yet to get their comeuppance. It is entirely conceivable that the US could eventually face a debt crisis, but it is hardly inevitable. A rising debt-to-GDP ratio only amounts to a clear and present danger when the interest rate on sovereign debt persistently exceeds its economy’s growth rate.