so, we are now up to what inflation rate, 13% (if i read the graph correctly)?
isn’t that getting somewhat close to a jimmy carter era level rate? /* rhetorical */
The big difference between then, and now, there isn’t anyone like Paul Volcker around. And it wouldn’t matter even if there was. The Overnight fed lending rate hit 15 or 16 percent. Something like that. But their hands are tied.
They can’t raise interest rates, not even a little, or the entire thing blows up in their face. They can save the dollar or they could save the markets ... but they sure as hell can’t save both. Remember they haven’t even passed a budget, deficit or otherwise in years.
They just call them “spending packages” or “continuing resolutions” or “reconciliation”. Nominal interest rates of 4 or 5 percent would mean no money for anything else except making interest payments on existing debt. That’s why nobody publicly talks about government financial matters. And is probably why everything is completely fooked in the last several years.
If you ever wondered how they were going to renege on everything when the time came, look around, look at current events, look at the shitshow at the last few years. They are just getting warmed up.