In their classic book, “This Time Is Different: Eight Hundred Years of Financial Folly,” Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart found that over the centuries a high public debt level has been among the most reliable indicators of future financial crises.

It is a pity that Rogoff and Reinhart’s findings seem to have escaped President Donald Trump’s notice. Had he paid heed to the lessons of past public-debt crises, he would not have sought passage of his “One Big Beautiful Bill.” By substantially increasing the country’s future debt level, that piece of legislation has put the country on course for a dollar and Treasury bond market crisis in the run-up to next year’s mid-term election.

Since the administration of President Bill Clinton, a key economic challenge in our country has been the lac

See Full Page