Latest US Treasury data show we're on unsustainable path: interest on the debt was a whopping $61 billion in May, more than was spent on veterans benefits and services, education, and transportation COMBINED; interest costs were a quarter of the deficit last month:
Also note that the Treasury's graphic is deceptive, w/ no note that it isn't to scale - "deficit" of $240B is numerically larger than "social insurance & retirement" receipts of $140B, but "deficit" is half the size in the graphic:
The deficit is substantially worse than last fiscal year, with 8 months' worth of deficits almost equal to previous 12 months' deficits; fiscal year to date deficit is 2.7 times the same period from previous fiscal year:
Interest on the debt this fiscal year has risen 25% from last fiscal year, the result of issuing new debt but also rolling over old debt at much higher interest rates:
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Latest from BLS shows we're still paying the hidden tax of inflation; average family effectively $7,200 poorer than Jan '21 🧵...
Price increases have slowed significantly (disinflation) but no widespread decreases in prices (deflation); that reduces the headline y/y number (4.0%) but people are still paying the inflation tax until earnings catch up with price increases:
Real hourly earnings don't tell the whole story b/c hours have been getting cut, so real weekly earnings are down even more - now down 5.1% since Jan '21, lowest level since Jun '22:
consumer spending contributed just 1.42 percentage points (pp), investment an anemic 0.27 pp, net exports 0.56 pp, and gov't 0.64 pp
The gain from net exports is not a good sign: both imports and exports are falling, imports are just falling faster; international trade slowdown is not a sign of wealth for Americans