Something will have to give – a warning for the USA

I suppose there are those among us who want the rest of the world to mind its own business. Who are they to criticize the United States about spending money we don’t have?

Some politicians want to raise taxes – but only on the super wealthy. Unfortunately, their view is to spend what we don’t have.

Others want to cut spending, but on what? It’s the welfare state we are told.

It’s easy to spend when people think they are getting something for nothing, it’s quite hard to take away something on which people have become dependent.

We have spent our way to crisis

The USA has some mighty hard choices to make. Even the rest of the world seems to know that.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Tuesday that America’s recent economic performance is partially the result of the country’s unsustainable fiscal practices, creating risks for the global economy.

“The exceptional recent performance of the United States is certainly impressive and a major driver of global growth, but it reflects strong demand factors as well, including a fiscal stance that is out of line with long-term fiscal sustainability,” the IMF wrote in its latest World Economic Outlook.

“This raises short-term risks to the disinflation process, as well as longer-term fiscal and financial stability risks for the global economy since it risks pushing up global funding costs,” it continued. “Something will have to give.”

The IMF projected that the U.S. economy will grow 2.7 percent in 2024, an upward revision of 0.6 percentage points from January and well above the projections for its fellow advanced economies.

“The strong recent performance of the United States reflects robust productivity and employment growth, but also strong demand in an economy that remains overheated,” said Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, in a blog post.

“This calls for a cautious and gradual approach to easing by the Federal Reserve,” he added.

As reported by The Hill

7 comments

  1. When you have the position of the world’s currency, the rest of the world keeps an eye on its value. Seems like those folks are getting antsy with the supply of dollars being rolled out like pallets of toilet paper. Time to tighten up the spending.

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  2. Well I assume this is Joe Biden’s issue as he dumped all the money he was warned not to spend because we did not have it. Looks like the economy is built on debt sort of like folks living high using credit cards and home equity as fiscal practices that are not sustainable.

    Where to cut is no big deal–just take 1%-2% of each agency budget. Now if that is too much think about what they did years ago when cutting defense was in vogue. A commission was appointed–it was told to look carefully at military bases that might be closed–it did and many were shuttered. The politicians said they were following the dictate of the base closing commission.

    That you can’t find spending cuts we are told is foolish. Heck we just reduced the increased spending Biden wanted for an additional 85,000 IRS agents. I would de-fund NPR in the next budget for a few reasons, but even a small federal expenditure elimination sends a message. If you can’t cut a small expense then it will be tough to cut anything.

    “Short term risks to the disinflation process” I assume means the lowering of inflation is in danger. Inflation (too much $ chasing too few goods) could rear its ugly head with higher rates than the 3.5% we now have.

    Seems as if they are proposing the FED reduce rates which seems to me that it fuels more growth with “easy” money. Maybe they are worried about disinflation, a slowing of the global economy, and want to get ahead of it.

    We have a real issue with all this debt and we just added to it with the student loan transfer. How serious are we about debt reduction? Buying votes is the primary issue right now!!

    In ’22 they drained the Strategic Oil Reserve to try and reduce gas prices before the election. They are so responsible these folks!

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    1. Interesting comments, straight out of the GOP talking points. Reads like something a Gold Bug would promulgate, stirring fear to drive confused investors (read Suckers) into buying bullion as a protection against inflation AND Wall Street panic.

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      1. I am in no way a “gold bug” but I think you will find gold has outperformed the S&P 500 since year 2000. Gold at year end was $274.50 an ounce–on 12/31/23 it was $2,062 an ounce. $10,000 was worth $75,100.

        S&P 500 was worth $51,092 ($10,000 invested) suffering through bear markets in 2000-01— 2007-2009–and 33 days at the end of 2019 when the world shut down for covid.

        Personally no gold in this house–a few good funds that go back 53-years and three solid tax-free bond funds.

        Those “suckers” have done well if we are honest with ourselves.

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