Deficit Attention Disorder

By Stacey Vanek Smith,

Published April 11, 2018 at 4:17 PM EDT

The U.S. economy is not in a cyclical downturn right now. In fact, it is growing. So you might think that the deficit would be shrinking every year.

But no. The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit will be going up for the next 10 years. It will reach a trillion dollars by 2020.

Jared Bernstein joined us to talk about whether that's a bad thing.

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Stacey Vanek Smith

Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money. She's also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she's traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country's dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she's spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China.

See stories by Stacey Vanek Smith

Cardiff Garcia

Cardiff Garcia is a co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, along with Stacey Vanek Smith. He joined NPR in November 2017.

See stories by Cardiff Garcia