XPost: alt.politics.economics, alt.society.liberalism, talk.politics.guns XPost: talk.politics.misc, sac.politics

In <svm9pb$hnb$2@dont-email.me> dipshit Lefty Lundquist <lefty_lundquist@ggmail.com> wrote:

Biden is a piece of shit criminal.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said “the U.S. is on an
unsustainable fiscal path” in a “60 Minutes” interview with Scott
Pelley released Sunday.

“The U.S. federal government’s on an unsustainable fiscal path. And
that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy.
So, it is unsustainable. I don’t think that’s at all controversial,” Powell said when asked if the national debt is a danger to the
economy.

The U.S. national debt topped $34 trillion for the first time ever
in early January, just over three months after surpassing the $33
trillion mark, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury.

Congress has punted on spending deadlines three times since the end
of September as it grapples with how to fund the government amid
tensions about the ballooning national debt.

Under the latest stopgap measure passed in January, funding for four
federal agencies will expire on March 1. Funding for the rest of the
government is set to run out on March 8.

President Biden and House Republicans faced off on the borrowing
limit last spring, ultimately averting disaster days before the U.S.
was set to default. But Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. credit
rating from “AAA” to “AA+” in August, citing the increasing burden
of the national debt and repeated partisan standoffs over the debt
limit.

Despite the Fed chair’s long-term worries about the national debt,
he said members of the central bank’s rate-setting panel believe
“the economy’s in a good place.”

The economy has been growing quickly, clocking in at an annual rate
of 3.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the
latest data released by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Inflation has also fallen drastically from its 9 percent peak in
summer 2022 to 3.4 percent in December, according to the latest
consumer price index (CPI). The Fed hiked interest rates from near
zero in March 2022 to a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent in June 2023,
and they have held rates steady at subsequent meetings.

Top Fed officials have signaled rate cuts on the horizon in 2024 but
declined to cut rates following the January meeting last Wednesday,
as expected. What was less expected was Powell’s suggestion that
March rate cuts were off the table at a press conference following
the announcement, a position he doubled down on during his “60
Minutes” interview.

“I would say, and I did say yesterday, that I think it’s not likely
that this committee will reach that level of confidence in time for
the March meeting, which is in seven weeks,” Powell said.

“The kinds of things that would make us want to move sooner would be
if we saw weakness in the labor market or if we saw inflation really persuasively coming down,” he added.

Powell and the Fed have taken heat from both sides of the political
spectrum for their decision to keep interest rates at their highest
level in more than two decades.

Former President Trump accused Powell of being “political” and
suggested the Republican appointee would cut rates to help Democrats
during the upcoming election during a Fox Business interview on
“Mornings with Maria” that aired Sunday.

Some Senate Democrats also urged the Fed chair to cut rates ahead of
last Wednesday’s meeting.

“As the Fed weighs its next steps in the new year, we urge you to
consider the effects of your interest rate decisions on the housing
market and to reverse the troubling rate hikes that have put
affordable housing out of reach for too many,” Sens. Elizabeth
Warren (D-Mass.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.)
and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote in a letter to Powell last
Sunday.

But Powell pushed back on any implication that politics would play a
role in the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates in the coming
months.

“We do not consider politics in our decisions. We never do. And we
never will,” Powell said. “Integrity is priceless. And at the end,
that’s all you have.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/4447860-powell-the-us-is-on-an- unsustainable-fiscal-path/

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