The Biden administration just ran the largest November budget deficit in history.
And it managed this feat even with a 9% increase in government receipts.
Everybody seems convinced that the Federal Reserve has won the inflation fight, there will be no more interest rate hikes, and rate cuts are right around the corner. But as Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey reminds us, it’s not over until the fat lady sings. And she hasn’t sung a note. In this episode, he breaks down the latest CPI data and explains why the victory dance might be premature.
After running the third-largest budget deficit in US history in fiscal 2023, the Biden administration kicked off fiscal 2024 with another big budget shortfall.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on Real America with Dan Ball to talk about the latest employment data and the state of the real estate market. We know there is a lot of doom and gloom in the headlines, but Peter said the situation is actually doomier and gloomier than the headlines suggest.
There is a $33.7 trillion elephant in the living room.
I’m referring to the massive national debt.
It’s pretty amazing that we have this massive animal sitting right in the middle of everything and most people are just walking around it as if it isn’t there.
Japan is in the midst of a slow-motion train wreck. The country has a massive national debt and it is starting to feel the pressure of rising interest rates. In his podcast, Peter Schiff talked about the situation in Japan and pointed out some disturbing parallels to what’s happening in the US.
Does the massive national debt matter?
A lot of people don’t think it does, at least not yet. They point to Japan as an example of a country that has a much higher debt-to-GDP ratio and is doing fine. Peter Schiff said they’re looking at the wrong country. The US is more like Argentina than Japan.
The Biden administration ran a $1.695 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2023. It was the third-largest deficit in US history. The only time the US government ran bigger deficits was during the COVID years of 2020 and 2021.
The government closed out the year with a $170.98 billion deficit in September, according to the final Monthly Treasury Statement of the fiscal year. That was more than double the projection.
The House recently ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the wake of the continuing resolution to keep spending money and avoid a government shutdown. Dissatisfied Republicans frustrated with the GOP’s unwillingness to address the federal spending problem banded together with Democrats to send McCarthy packing.
While the outcome might be politically satisfying to some, it’s not going to solve the underlying problem.
Great news! The inflation war is over and we won! At least that’s how Paul Krugman sees it. But he’s playing tricks with the data and making assumptions that are meaningless in the real world. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey dissects Krugman’s claims in light of the September CPI data. He also talks about market reaction to the CPI and shares some interesting gold news from Zimbabwe.
