The consequences have arrived

[TexasTiger 12,953]

The solutions won’t be easy.

Years of artificially low interest rates are catching up with us. For years the consequences of borrowing were minimized and delayed. Interest rates were so low, budget deficits didn’t seem too painful. Now, debts incurred years ago are incurring significant costs. We were on a path to addressing this in the mid to late 90s. Democrats passed needed tax increases in 1995 and then Clinton and the Republican house reduced spending, however minimally. Dubya blew up the budget with tax cuts and spending. The subprime debacle almost collapsed the economy and in the period of steady growth that followed, the can was kicked down the road. Trump was only concerned with short-term optics, not long-term consequences and insisted on more tax cuts. Anyone really following this knew inflation and larger interest payments were coming even without the pandemic that sped up & compounded it. The solutions will require intelligence, honesty, sacrifice and cooperation— all things largely absent in our current politics. Without it, even more pain, even higher interest rates and the eventual collapse of the dollar as the world’s currency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/03/us-debt-deficit-rises-interest-rate/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social