Keyword: deficit
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As Americans have continued to sound off over sticker shock on retail and grocery shelves, the U.S. Treasury secretary admitted Wednesday that her public predictions were wrong. "I regret saying it was transitory [inflation]. It has come down, but I think transitory means a few weeks or months to most people. And it's lasted longer than that," Janet Yellen told FOX Business’ Edward Lawrence in an exclusive interview. In early June 2021, Yellen had tamped down inflationary concerns, claiming rising costs and the contributing factors were "transitory," a term used to describe temporary market conditions. "We have in recent months...
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Holders of commercial real estate (CRE) debt are riding the tiger. Meaning that if interest rates don’t come down, there will be a lot of pain and suffering. “We’re far from neutral now,” said America’s Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, to the Senate Banking Committee. As The Fed moves closer to cutting rates. All those rent-seekers stacked up with commercial real estate holdings nodded in violent agreement. That of course includes the nation’s regional banks, which continue to succumb to the power of their systemically important rivals, now so big that they cannot possibly be allowed to fail. Sometimes neutral rates...
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Buying a home has become increasingly out of reach for Americans, who are grappling with a double whammy of high interest rates and surging home values. In his State of the Union address on Thursday, President Joe Biden proposed a new tax credit that would provide $10,000 to first-time home buyers. Biden is also proposing a separate $10,000 tax credit for current homeowners who sell their "starter home" in order to jump into a bigger house. That could help melt a real estate market in which homeowners who locked in low mortgage rates during the pandemic and are hesitant to...
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On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that there is more work to be done on deficit reduction, President Joe Biden will continue to work on reducing the deficit, and that’s why the President has put out a proposal to raise taxes. After Buttigieg [relevant exchange begins around 2:20] said that Biden will “continue down the path of deficit reduction that he has achieved in his presidency,” host Neil Cavuto said, “We have more debt than we did when he assumed office. Debt has grown under this President. By the way, it’s...
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A finance expert is sounding the alarm over America’s growing debt, predicting the $34 trillion burden could trigger a meltdown as early as next year if more isn’t done to curb spending. According to Joao Gomes, a senior vice dean for research and academic initiatives at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, the United States’ growing debt could upset global financial markets in 2025 should the next president announce a raft of expensive policies following an election win in 2024. “The lack of concern by the media and politicians about the U.S. Federal Debt is shocking,” he said...
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates that, this year, 2024, the U.S. federal government will spend more on interest on the national debt than on national defense. Or Medicare. You read that correctly. The CBO says that the federal government will spend $850 billion on defense, as opposed to $870 billion on debt interest. Moreover, interest payments on the national debt are the fastest-growing part of the preposterously bloated yet still fast-growing federal budget … and are projected to reach a mind-blowing $5.4 trillion by 2053. So, effectively, taxpayers are going to have their hard-earned money confiscated to pay...
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A majority of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. A majority don’t have enough money to pay for a thousand-dollar emergency. Home ownership is a rapidly dissipating aspect of the American dream. Americans’ credit card debt is at a record high because of high inflation and the cost-of-living, and they’re falling behind on debt payments. People don’t have enough money for retirement. So what is the solution? Well for some economists, it’s time to take away the tax benefit for 401(k) plans because the government is short of revenue to pay for their exorbitant spending. See here, from USA Today:What if the...
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Newsom’s Fiscal Inferno! When Arnold Schwarzenegger was Governor California, his budget chief, a former high school pal of mine, called me to look at California’s budget. He sent me his spreadsheets with forecasts and asked me what I thought. Even back then, I called back and said “California is on an unsustainable fiscal path and seems to be committing suicide.” He agreed, but noted that Schwarzenegger would not like that conclusion. I told him to blame me for the report, as an unpaid consultant to The Golden State. But even back then, I could foresee the absolute mess that the...
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House lawmakers on Friday floated a new bipartisan national security bill that would beef up security at the problematic US-Mexico border and provide much-needed aid to Ukraine. The “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act” would restore the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for one year, while also allowing border enforcement authorities to detain and immediately expel illegal aliens who don’t meet the threshold for asylum claims. The “Remain in Mexico” policy requires most migrants who reach the southern border — usually after leaving Central America or the Caribbean — to remain in Mexico while US courts review their asylum claims....
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A McDonald’s outpost in Connecticut is being slammed for its “outrageous pricing” after a customer was charged more than $7 for an Egg McMuffin—and nearly $6 for a side of hash browns. “$7.29 for one McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. What has the world come to??” New York-based Bespoke Investment Group wrote on X of the breakfast sandwich, also posting a photo of the stiff bill.(snip) “These were 2 for $2 pretty recently,” the Bespoke account added in the X post, though the popular fast-food chain did away with that promotional offering in 2016. In a subsequent post, the Bespoke account noted...
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The tale President Joe Biden tells is that his “Bidenomics” had a positive impact on the economy by reducing the budget deficit and getting inflation under control. The problem is that it’s just not true. On the one hand, we have the claims made by the White House and the Treasury, but on the other hand, we have the cold hard facts. Unfortunately for the White House, the final budget data for fiscal year 2023 tells the story of out-of-control spending, even outpacing rising revenues, and the devastating effects that can have on an economy through inflation.
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I don't care what FR neocons say UK/US are officially bombing one of the poorest countries on Earth. It's unconscionable. I want peace. Enough.
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CNBC personality Rick Santelli said on Thursday’s “Squawk Box” that it takes a $1.19 to buy what a dollar bought before the coronavirus pandemic. Santelli said, “Our Consumer Price Index read for the month of December by Bureau of Labor Statistics expected to be up 0.2% up 0.3%. And if you strip out food and energy, it is exactly as expected, which is up 0.3%.” He continued, “Let’s go along here. Year over year, CPI is expected to be up 3.2. It’s up 3.4. The best it’s been was 3.0 in June of last year. That is the best since...
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The House Freedom Caucus said it's a 'total failure' Republican hardliners in the House of Representatives are pushing back against the bipartisan deal struck on Sunday aimed at avoiding a government shutdown.The conservative House Freedom Caucus led the revolt against Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s agreement on Sunday evening, recirculating a late December memo that said any funding topline higher than $1.59 trillion would be "totally unacceptable.""It’s even worse than we thought," the group posted on X. "Don’t believe the spin. Once you break through typical Washington math, the true total programmatic spending level is...
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The conservative House Freedom Caucus slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson's proposed top-line spending deal with Senate Democrats as a "total failure," arguing the potential agreement costs about $68 billion more than the Louisiana Republican said it would.Johnson told members of Congress on Sunday that he reached a $1.590 trillion spending deal with the Senate and White House, but the Freedom Caucus slammed the proposal later that evening in a post on X, formerly Twitter."It’s even worse than we thought," the caucus wrote. "Don’t believe the spin. Once you break through typical Washington math, the true total programmatic spending level is...
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WASHINGTON -- The federal government's gross national debt has surpassed $34 trillion, a record high that foreshadows the coming political and economic challenges to improve America's balance sheet in the coming years. The U.S. Treasury Department issued a report Tuesday logging U.S. finances, which have become a source of tension in a politically divided Washington that could possibly see parts of the government shutdown without an annual budget in place. Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed last June to temporarily lift the nation's debt limit, staving off the risk of what would be a historic default. That agreement lasts...
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WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government's total public debt has reached $34 trillion for the first time, the U.S. Treasury Department reported on Tuesday as members of Congress gear up for another series of federal funding battles in coming weeks. The Daily Treasury Statement for Friday showed that the total public debt outstanding rose to $34.001 trillion from $33.911 on Thursday. The debt that counts toward the federal debt ceiling rose to $33.89 trillion on Friday from $33.794 trillion on Thursday. This "debt subject to limit" category excludes the unamortized discount on Treasury bills and zero coupon...
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Most do not realize that the West has been funding Ukraine’s entire government. Biden and other world leaders have promised Zelensky that they would fund the salaries and pensions for all Ukrainian politicians and government workers. Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister, issued a warning that Ukraine will be unable to pay MILLIONS of government employees if the West does not resume payments. The figures are correct. The West has the salaries of 500,000 Ukrainian civil servants on its payroll, along with 1.4 million teachers. The highest priced item is the 10 MILLION pensioners living completely off of foreign aid....
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Lawmakers will resume negotiations in January with daunting prospects … … Under a provision of the debt ceiling law President Biden negotiated with House Republicans last year, an automatic 1% cut would hit agencies’ budgets on May 1 if Congress has not yet approved full-year funding. That was designed to disproportionately impact defense spending and therefore incentivize all sides to avoid the automatic reductions, as Republicans typically prioritize that side of the ledger. Due to “anomalies” included in stopgap measures, however, the Congressional Budget Office recently determined domestic agencies would shoulder the impact. Assuming a full year of funding for...
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<p>Concerns about the high cost of countering the threat posed by the Yemeni armed forces in the Red Sea are growing in the Pentagon, according to US defense officials who spoke with Politico.</p><p>Sanaa has reportedly fired at least 100 drones toward Israeli-linked commercial vessels for the past month in support of the Palestinian people. US estimates place the cost of the domestic-made drones at $2,000 each.</p>
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