In the long arc of democratic governance, the promise of direct cash to citizens has always carried both political appeal and economic consequence. President Trump's proposal to send $5,000 to every American adult — ostensibly funded by tariff revenue — revives a familiar tension between the desire to ease public hardship and the structural realities of a nation already carrying $40 trillion in debt. Economists warn that the math does not hold, that the remedy risks worsening the very ailment it claims to cure, and that financial markets — the quiet arbiters of fiscal credibility — are watchin