{"id":33162,"date":"2012-12-09T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=33162"},"modified":"2012-12-09T12:25:11","modified_gmt":"2012-12-09T16:25:11","slug":"more-wonderful-economic-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=33162","title":{"rendered":"More “Wonderful” Economic News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, new US financial figures are out.\u00a0 And they show that Uncle Sam is in a world of hurt, financially speaking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And if you thought things were improving:\u00a0 think again.\u00a0 It’s looking worse compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the new fiscal year on 1 October, the Federal government has taken in $346 billion in revenue.\u00a0 That’s actually up roughly $30 billion from last year, or nearly 10%.\u00a0 So revenue is rising.<\/p>\n

However, during that same period the Federal government has spent roughly $638 billion – an increase of $87 billion, or about 14% more than the same period last year<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Short version:\u00a0 income – $346 billion (+10%); spending – $638 billion (+14%).<\/p>\n

Somehow, I just don’t think we’ve had the kind of population growth in a year to warrant that kind of spending increase.\u00a0 Or that much inflation, either.<\/p>\n

I’ll save you the trouble of doing the math.\u00a0 Since 1 October 2012, the Federal government has borrowed 46 cents of each dollar it has spent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 That’s primarily due to higher spending on “mandatory” spending – like Social Security, Medicare, and debt interest payments. In other words: the problem is largely due to entitlement programs for the general population and debt interest. Seems these programs are growing faster than expected.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n

News flash, DC:\u00a0 at some point, “mandatory” becomes impossible if you can’t come up with the cash.\u00a0 And it looks like we’re approaching that point PDQ.<\/p>\n

But there’s no need to worry.\u00a0 According to the CBO, the picture is “distorted” by “unbalanced payments”.\u00a0 The situation’s really better this year than last says the CBO.<\/p>\n

Well, here’s my response to the CBO:<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

When same period last year shows 10% less income but 14%<\/em> less spending, that doesn’t<\/span> mean things are getting better – no matter how you try to spin it.\u00a0 It means things are moving in the absolutely wrong direction and are getting worse.<\/p>\n

It also looks like we almost certainly had another $1,000 billion ($1 trillion) Federal deficit for Fiscal 2012, which ended on 30 September.\u00a0 At the current pace, it looks like that’s almost certainly a lock for Fiscal 2013 as well.\u00a0 And unemployment is back above 8% again – if it ever really went below 8% in the first place.<\/p>\n

At least the current Administration is being consistent.\u00a0 I’m just not sure that’s exactly the kind of consistency the US wants.<\/p>\n

Or needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, new US financial figures are out.\u00a0 And they show that Uncle Sam is in a … More “Wonderful” Economic News<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}