My philosophy when I used to hire traders was that the optimal number of past blow ups was one.

The most vocal critics of the debt and deficit tend to be people who run successful trading businesses: Dalio, Griffin, Druckenmiller, Singer, Solomon, Gross, Dimon, Gundlach, etc. Here's my theory why... Every successful trading business is grounded in risk management. Long-term success depends on avoiding systemic blowups. These managers are confident their platforms will thrive over time, but only if they steer clear of tail-risk events and so they're acutely focused on avoiding them. The US is the most successful platform the world has ever seen. This country has delivered enormous gains in living standards and health and has tremendous potential to continue doing so, but only if it avoids the tail-risk events. Excessive debt is one of those. It poses an existential risk for a country. Nobody can predict when, how, or even if excessive debt will trigger a crisis, just as no trader can predict when a poorly managed position might implode. That uncertainty is no excuse to ignore the risk. That's what bothers traders about the national debt. The US is holding a position with significant and potentially catastrophic risk for little benefit. And instead of managing it responsibly, it keeps adding exposure. In trading, ignoring risk is the most reliable path to collapse. The same holds true in governing a country.