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U.S. Budget Deficit
August 9, 2023

How Long Can This Record-Breaking Debt Last?

In Seeking Alpha, By Ryan McMaken in
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2020 Will Be A Record-Breaking Year For Debt. How Long Can This Last?

The deficit narrowed during July after months of record shortfalls in federal tax revenues. During April, May, and June of this year, deficits surged to unprecedented highs as economic activity dried up, workers were furloughed and laid off, and tax payments were deferred. Nevertheless, according to the Treasury Department’s latest report on tax receipts and federal outlays, the gap between tax receipts and federal spending narrowed sizably during July. Although outlays increased to $626 billion during July (a 68 percent increase over July 2019), tax receipts surged to over $563 billion. During recent months, tax receipts have been anemic at best, with totals ranging from $173 billion to $249 billion since March 2020. July’s surge in revenue, however, does not indicate an improvement in the economy. Normally, tax receipts peak in April, but due to the covid-19 panic this year, tax deadlines were deferred, and those deferred receipts began to show up in Treasury data in July.

Expect More Huge Growth in Deficits

July’s receipt totals reflect previous economic activity from before the mandated lockdowns and declines in economic activity due to “social distancing.” In other words, it is likely that receipts will worsen significantly as we approach the end of the fiscal year, which ends on September 30. If so, we can expect the federal deficit to grow even more, bringing it to a new all-time high for the 2020 fiscal year. Indeed, for this fiscal year through July, the federal deficit increased by more than 200 percent from 2019, rising to $2.8 trillion. For the same period of 2019 (October through July), the deficit was $866 billion. The last time the deficit even came close was when it topped $1.2 trillion for the same period of the 2009 fiscal year.

Trillions in New Borrowing

Poised to add more than $3 trillion to the national debt in 2020, the US is borrowing more than ever, and committing to ever larger dollar amounts that must be paid on the approximately $25 trillion debt. So what kinds of debt payments are we looking at? Even before the covid-19 crisis hit, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the US would pay more than $400 billion in 2020 (compared to approximately $650 billion for the defense budget). Except now the US is paying around $2 trillion more than was expected under last year’s estimates. Moreover, the US is unlikely to be churning out any big surpluses anytime soon. It’s a safe bet that deficits will continue to mount, and with them will come more interest payments on the debt.

Turning Debt into Price Inflation

Moreover, the more the US has to borrow money, the more it floods the marketplace with US bonds, which would tend to push up the interest rate paid. After all, if a government is going to be cranking out bonds seemingly without end, it will have to pay out more interest in order to convince investors to keep buying the bonds. But there’s one big reason that even now, as the US adds another $3 trillion to the deficit overnight, interest rates aren’t going up. That reason is the US’s central bank, the Federal Reserve. Rather than face the music of paying more interest at higher rates – and cutting federal spending to do so – the central bank is helping keep interest rates low. The Fed does this by buying up new US debt in the open market. This helps keep demand for US debt instruments high, keeping interest rates low. In part, this is why the Fed’s balance sheet now tops $7 trillion. The Fed has been buying up the US government’s debts, among other assets, so as to keep interest rates low.

Of course, this doesn’t mean the problem is solved. The central bank generally makes these purchases with newly created money. That means the money supply grows, with resulting price inflation in both assets and consumer goods, all else being equal. In other words, the downside of enormous and growing deficits is in a place many people wouldn’t think to look: in surging home prices, in rising food prices, and in a generally rising cost of living.

*This information is solely an excerpt of a third-party publication and is incomplete. Please subscribe to the referenced publication for the full article. This is not an offer to buy or sell precious metals. Investors should obtain advice based on their own individual circumstances and understand the risk before making any investment decision.

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