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To amplify Mike Jones’ answer I’ll only add that most people have no clue what the Federal RESERVE (emphasis on reserve) actually does.When member banks acquire “excess cash” they send it to the Federal Reserve and are credited with their deposit, and the Fed then destroys the bills to prevent their being purloined, lost, stolen, or otherwise make their way into the economy. When a member bank requires cash, the Treasury prints the bills and the Fed sends them to the member bank, debiting the bank’s account.In the 19th century, when a bank was robbed, it was depositor’s money that was stolen, and unless recovered subsequently, the depositors permanently lost their money. Banks were robbed as “Uncle Willy” Sutton once famously noted, “because that’s where the money is.” If a bank lost enough of its reserves, all depositor money was lost. And you wonder why people kept their money in their mattress?Further, the absence of a central or national bank (last shuttered during the 1830s under Jackson), the lack of a central coordinating system meant that cash might be flush in one part of the country, and lean in another, and the absence of cash was a big factor in keeping the US economy from growing uniformly. To further complicate the picture, in the 19th century, to make up for the shortfall of specie or currency, states, and even some regional and city banks took to printing their own “banknotes” that were used as currency locally. The banknotes were not usually backed by anything more potent than the solvency of the bank itself (see the banking panic of 1907 for the consequences of a cash pinch), and, worst of all, the banknotes lost value the further you got from the issuing bank. Professional arbitrageurs would gather notes in one area, hop a train to the issuing area, and profit on the difference. And wooden nickels were both real, and valuable, and even department stores began issuing “chits” in change, redeemable at other local merchants.None of this bespoke of a group of “united” States, more of a disjointed amalgam of self-serving entities. The Federal Reserve act was the first step in integrating the economy of the United States into a single, cohesive unit. Without it, bank robbery would become a low-risk, high-profit enterprise once again as banks had to hold multi-million reserves in their vaults, and once again, it would be the depositors who lost their money, not “the bank.”

Multiple reasons.First, Trump passed a massive tax cut. Contrary to what people like to claim, tax cuts are NOT self-financing—they don’t pay for themselves.Sometimes it makes sense to cut taxes (to stimulate an economy, for fairness). But they don’t offset their lost revenue. The U.S. budget deficit has now more than doubled since 2015, Treasury Department saysSecond, the Trump Administration isn’t willing to make choices. In 2019 we had a deficit of over a trillion dollars. That is the first time in the history of the US we’ve had a deficit that big without being in a major recession and/or a war.Third, sequestration. Sequestration was a dumb idea. But, it was the only way to get the GOP House to start approving budgets of any kind (you literally had GOP House members willing to let the USG default). Obama was going to reducing spending anyway, but sequestration accelerated it.Look, there’s a lesson on this issue. The last President to actually run a surplus was Clinton. How did he do it? He was judicious with spending (cutting it in some areas) and he raised taxes (for most people—cut it for some people in low-income areas). Steve Schmidt has written about this—how the GOP wailed at how Clinton’s approach would be an economic disaster. Instead, we got out of a recession, got a healthy economy, and reduced the debt a modest amount.

That would be Jordan.Frankly speaking, the reason I chose Jordan for a visit was that it’s boring … or I thought it was anyway.Then why did I intentionally choose a boring place for a visit?Well, it was cheap, visa-free, and also … a boring place is good when you hardly see your spouse, because then you get to chill instead of running around to do activities.Turns out I was wrong as it was anything but boring. I came to realize that we found a hidden gem that the internet didn’t do justice. Every depiction I’ve seen in my research was very limited and downplayed what can be seen and done around the country.Where do I start?Looking up Jordan, the vast majority of websites, and the recommendations I heard from others all focused on one thing. This amazing masterpiece here:Turns out that:- The monument above is only a part of a large ancient city buried inside mountains!The building behind me, which is carved in a mountain, is called the treasury. When I saw it in pictures, I naively thought that, like the pyramids in my country, you drive there with a car, stop to take a look, snap a few pictures then drive back home. Let me tell you this… it was not that simple!The treasury is hidden deep inside mountains in a large ancient city. To get there, you’re in for a decent hike! I walked with my husband for five hours between mountains, finding numerous ruins right and left on our way, varying in sizes and shapes. Everywhere we looked there was a holes, doors, ruined buildings and so on:Not only that, but we discovered that there is another monument that looks very similar to the treasury itself. And that would be the monastery below. That was a pleasant surprise for sure.And despite hiking around for that long, we still didn't cover nearly everything that was around which is why my husband insists that he wants to go back one day.- Forget about the ruins, that place was a mountainous wonder!I never really imagined that you could see that many different shapes of mountains in such a small area. In our hike alone, we saw mountains in all shapes, colors and sizes:Moving more around the country we saw even more diverse mountains:- There is something to see nearly everywhere.When we had no clue what to see in an area, I would look up what can be done around and we always found something interesting.One time we found a castle:And one time we came across a Roman theatre, something I never expected to see in Jordan:And one time we came across large hot springs and waterfalls:-Heavy religious heritage.Probably because I am not a Christian and I've yet to read the Bible, but I didn't know that the Jordan River and the surrounding area has great Christian symbols.We got to see the place where Jesus was supposedly baptized in along with a few areas he supposedly passed by:-The desert is pretty different.Being an Egyptian, and growing up in Kuwait, I've seen nothing but desert in my life really. So I had no expectations in that regard. But who knew that sand could actually impress me?In Wadi Rum, a famous valley in Jordan, the sand was so red that it stained my socks for good! It was like nothing I've seen before.I would definitely recommend hiking up one of the hills and taking in the red view.Anyhow,The reason I thought Jordan was nothing like it was depicted is because most things are hardly described at all. It’s very under-represented in my opinion and that's why most people have little opinion on it. But I would definitely recommend it for someone who fancies sites like the ones I mentioned.Edit: the reason I didn't mention any negatives about Jordan is because they were exactly as was depicted to me my whole life since I live in a very similar country 😅 if I am asked about them, I would answer without issues.