Category: US Debt
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Monday, April 29, 2024
The Federal Reserve's $34.5 Trillion Problem / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
The Federal Reserve has a $34.5 trillion problem.
And the problem is growing.
Yes, I’m talking about the national debt.
How is the debt the Fed’s problem?
It hamstrings the Fed’s ability to fight price inflation.
Monday, February 05, 2024
US Exponential Budget Deficit / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The US Congress Budget Office report projects the US deficit as a percentage of GDP being on an explosive trend trajectory which is as a function of the US government borrowing money to spend on consumption resulting in an ever interest payments and debt mountain. Folks we are looking at an out of control debt spiral, as interest on debt continues to result in the printing of even more new debt.
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Saturday, November 18, 2023
Biden Bizarrely Brags About Lower Budget Deficits as US Federal Debt Skyrockets / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
The more things change in Washington, the more they stay the same.
Under the new leadership of House Speaker Mike Johnson, Congress passed a stopgap funding bill on Tuesday to once again avert a government shutdown. It was quickly approved by the Senate on Wednesday, then signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Like the last one, this latest bipartisan budget scheme includes no spending cuts. So once again, deficit hawks are left feeling betrayed – not to mention alarmed at the country’s worsening fiscal trajectory.
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Something Isn’t Adding Up as U.S. Debt Soars $2 Trillion in 2023 / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
Precious metals markets retreated last week as official U.S. employment data came in surprisingly strong.The Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims fell by 13,000 to a total of 216,000. Many economists had been expecting jobless claims to rise.
Of course, government economic data is subject to revision and to criticism for flawed methodology. But it still has the ability to move markets, at least in the near term.
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Tuesday, May 16, 2023
US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It's definitely the time to bring out the clowns as MSM and much of the blogosfear are obsessed by the US debt ceiling smoke and mirrors circus that is being used as an excuse to explain potential market outcomes from a CRASH upwards, there is always a crash coming! And if the market soars then no problem it will soar because of debt ceiling positive developments, Whether UP or Down it will all be as a consequence of the DEBT CEILING! I have watched this circus take place every couple of years over the decades, it IS just a circus act for the Republicans and Democrats to prance around in front of the media, a smoke and mirrors TV show to remind the masses that they have all of the power and so if the chose to nuke the US economy.
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Monday, December 26, 2022
US Debt Jubilee / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Richard_Mills
A cross-the-board ‘Debt Jubilee’ might sound radical, but a reading of history shows that retiring debt can actually make a country’s economy, and its indebted citizenry, all the better for it. There is even a relatively recent example. In 2000, U2 front man Bono launched a campaign to provide debt relief to developing countries. The Jubilee 2000 coalition managed to get the G8 to agree to write off $100 billion in debts that developing countries owed to developed nations.
The term ‘Jubilee’ comes from the Old Testament. The book of Deuteronomy refers to a sabbath year during which any slaves would be freed, and everyone would be allowed to return to their family farms and live off the land. During the Jubilee, all debt obligations would be forgiven — such as land or crops that debtors had pledged to creditors.
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Sunday, February 06, 2022
New US National Debt Milestone Signals Currency Crisis Ahead / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
The U.S. reached a $30 trillion milestone this week. Instead of signifying a great achievement, though, it serves as a dire warning for American workers, investors, and retirees.
On Tuesday, the Treasury Department reported that total public debt outstanding surpassed $30,000,000,000,000.
That’s a lot of zeroes. It amounts to $231,000 per household.
Interest on the debt currently costs taxpayers $900 million per day, or $330 billion per year. Enormous as that sum may seem, it is artificially low at present due to depressed interest rates.
Monday, September 27, 2021
The U.S. Government Plans to Default on Debt the Dishonest Way / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
Debt troubles in China and Washington, D.C. helped boost safe-haven demand for precious metals early this week. By Thursday, however, investors piled back into stocks and sold safe havens like gold and silver again.
Platinum is making news for an unusual reason that has nothing to do with its primary demand sources in the automotive and jewelry industries. Instead, it has to do with the political fight over raising the debt ceiling.
Some Democrats are proposing that the Treasury Department issue a $1 trillion platinum coin as a way around the need to increase borrowing capacity.
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Wednesday, February 24, 2021
US Debt and Yield Curve (Spread between 2 year and 10 year US bonds) / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Nadeem_Walayat
One of the reasons why my analysis of April 2019 was more subdued in terms of the prospects for US house prices than it would otherwise have been is because the yield curve was flirting with inversion, that I concluded that the Fed would not allow to take place and thus adopt whatever measures were necessary to PREVENT inversion that tends to foreshadow lower inflation and recessions.
The Fed succeeded in preventing a sustained inversion during 2019, with the yield curve massaged to hover around 0.2% that is until the pandemic broke and the Fed panicked and opened the monetary flood gates sending the yield curve soaring to currently stand at 1% as the bond market is discounting higher future inflation as the consequence of rampant money printing.
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Monday, December 21, 2020
Overstretch: The Long Shadow of Soaring US Debt / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Dan_Steinbock
If the past year was dominated by the huge human costs of COVID-19, the next few years will be about its economic aftermath, including the alarming rise of US debt. What’s needed is multilateral cooperation - a new 'Grand Alliance.'
On Friday, Congressional leaders failed to secure a bipartisan deal on a $900 billion pandemic relief package. A government shutdown was avoided only with a 2-day extension.
A protracted shutdown would amplify the risks for pandemic escalation and economic crisis, amid the long-awaited vaccine rollout. Bipartisan tensions are compounded by the impending Georgia Senate runoff races in January that will determine control of the chamber in the Congress.
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Monday, December 07, 2020
What Do We Do with All This Debt? / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
Before the coronavirus pandemic I expected the US would hit the debt wall in the late 2020s. Now, the debt is growing even faster and we will hit that wall a lot sooner.
What happens when we come to the place where we have to deal with all that debt?
Fortunately, my favorite central banker, Bill White -- who was the Bank for International Settlements' chief economist -- did a brilliant interview with my friend Mark Dittli in Switzerland in November that gives us some answers.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2020
US Debt Is Going Up but Leaving GDP Behind / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
We have plenty of evidence that US debt will balloon to $50 trillion by 2030, maybe more. Many smart people conclude that, in the meantime, the federal debt isn’t a problem.
Looking at the numbers as a percent of GDP—and considering the CBO long-term forecasts out to 2050—Sam Rines, whom I greatly respect, writes this:
"In its latest round of projections, by far the most intriguing portion of the analysis related to the dynamics around the US federal debt load. The US debt load has increased dramatically due to the response to COVID, but the ability to service the US debt load is actually improving.
Thursday, October 08, 2020
5 Consequences of US Debt at $50 Trillion / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
With the US set to breach the $50 trillion mark in debt by 2030, here are five things we should start thinking about sooner rather than later.
1. Raising taxes will not solve the problem. Of course, it could help reduce the deficit some, but it would be more of a token. That is just the reality. From the Tax Foundation, here are the real numbers as of 2017.
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Monday, October 05, 2020
To US $50 Trillion Debt (and Beyond) / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
In my 2020 forecast letters, published in January as the pandemic was just gaining attention, I noted this:
"When we do have a recession, which again I point out is likely to be after the election (the only meaningful data point between now and the end of next year), the deficit will explode to over $2 trillion per year and, without meaningful reform, never look back. That puts US debt at $35 trillion+ by the end of 2029."
According to CBO, this deficit -- which I said optimistically, in hindsight, would be over $2 trillion in a recession year -- will be more like $3.3 trillion.
What does this do to the national debt? First, we have to define some terms.
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Sunday, April 05, 2020
US Federal Budget Deficits: To $30 Trillion and Beyond / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
In my decade forecast, I projected that in the next recession that the deficit would climb to over $2 trillion. Clearly, that demonstrates I am an optimist. Here’s a chart I shared back in January.
Between reduced tax revenues and increased spending, I now expect this year’s deficit will be at least $4 trillion.
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Wednesday, March 25, 2020
US National Debt is About to Surge Like Never Before! / Politics / US Debt
By: Michael_Pento
The U.S. National Debt is about to surge like never before, along with the rest of the entire planet’s gigantic pile of sovereign IOUs. America started with a $23.5 trillion debt before the Wuhan virus outbreak, with annual deficits running over a $1 trillion; and projected to be at least that amount for the next dozen years. But then, the stock market and economy crashed due to the catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which pricked the massive bubble in junk bonds and equities that I have been warning about for years.
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Thursday, February 27, 2020
Trump or Sanders? Both will pile up the Debt / Politics / US Debt
By: Richard_Mills
Whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican installed in the White House this November, you can count on fiscal discipline going out the window. Neither the incumbent, President Donald J. Trump, nor the leading Democratic contender to replace him, Bernie Sanders, appears to give a hoot about shoveling more onto the enormous pile of debt that a few months ago shot past $23 trillion.
Why does this matter? Because debt impedes economic growth . And just like a business, if a country isn’t growing, it’s dying.
Keep that in mind as we explain how the real problem with the US economy, and what is driving gold prices ever higher, is not the coronavirus (though Covid-19 is certainly making things worse), but the 500-pound debt gorilla that is sitting on Uncle Sam’s chest, fattened by an all-you-can-eat buffet of dollar-denominated debt.
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Former Fed Official Says Government Can Borrow a LOT More / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
Narayana Kocherlakota, the former President of the Federal Reserve bank of Minneapolis wants you to know the Federal Government can never borrow too much money.
Our government already borrowed $23 trillion and deficits are expected to exceed $1 trillion per year. He knows many Americans feel anxious about the federal government going bankrupt, and he has a simple solution.
Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Elephant in the Room: Why Nobody Talks About Ballooning Federal Deficits / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
The presidential race will mesmerize Americans over the next 11 months. The country hasn’t been this polarized since the Civil War.
Voters on the left desperately want a story which undermines support for President Trump. They are also searching for a candidate who can actually win.
Many Republicans are outraged about the Deep State and corporate media campaign obsession with unseating a duly elected president – and they worry an avowed socialist could win the Democratic primary and, just possibly, the general election.
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Social Security Is Screwing Millennials / Politics / US Debt
By: John_Mauldin
Social Security is a textbook illustration of how government programs go off the rails.It had a noble goal: to help elderly and disabled Americans, who can’t work, maintain a minimal, dignified living standard.
Back then, most people either died before reaching that point or didn’t live long after it. Social Security was never intended to do what we now expect, i.e., be the primary incom source for most Americans during a decade or more of retirement.
Life expectancy when Social Security began was around 56. The designers made 65 the full retirement age because it was well past normal life expectancy.
No one foresaw the various medical and technological advances that let more people reach that age and a great deal more, or the giant baby boom that would occur after World War II, or the sharp drop in birth rates in the 1960s, thanks to artificial birth control.
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