Believe It or Not — a $2 Trillion Deficit

It’s being run up as Biden tells country how much cutting he’s done.

AP/Susan Walsh
President Biden speaks before a dinner for Combatant Commanders at the Cross Hall of the White House, May 3, 2023. AP/Susan Walsh

So, we’ve covered the legal problems of Joe and Hunter Biden. They’re up to their eyeballs in corruption, and we’ll keep an eye on it and see how it works out.  

President Biden has another problem: I estimate he’s got four to six weeks before the Treasury essentially runs out of money. Revenues are down and federal spending is way up — an incredible $350 billion over last year.  

This year’s deficit could come in close to $2 trillion, believe it or not. Actually, you have to believe it, because Mr. Biden’s been running around the country telling people how much he’s cut the deficit. Whoops: Didn’t quite work out. Just saying.  

Now, because revenues are short and spending is long, the Treasury’s cash position is going to be thin. That poses a big problem.  

Secretary Yellen’s so-called X-date may not be June 1, but, given that the Treasury on paper may be nearly broke, that date may not be many weeks after June 1.  

I’m being honest here: I’ve combed through the numbers, I’ve looked at the work of others who are smarter than I am, and we’re all coming up with the same conclusion. June 1 could be the X-date.  

There’s only so much Ms. Yellen can loot from the retirement funds of the civil service, post office, the railroads, the thrift savings plan, and the exchange stabilization fund. She could keep looting even more in return for IOUs to pay them back — so-called Treasury non-marketables — but it gets dicier and dicier as the Biden deficit haul gets deeper and deeper.  

The other problem is: When you take a look at oil and other commodity price declines, it’s got recession written all over it.  

The good news is the commodity value of the dollar has recovered nicely in the past year, and that’s a very favorable omen for continuing decline of the inflation rate. This is why I now believe the Fed should pause the interest rate hikes.  

Meanwhile, the M-2 money supply is contracting, and the yield curve is historically negative and inverted. Comparatively, the upside-down Treasury curve is even worse than it was in the 1980s.  

Real wages continue to sink, productivity continues to plunge, profits are very iffy, business investment is in a deep recession. People have jobs, but they’re not paying — after taxes and after inflation. Grocery and gas prices are still a big issue.  

So, you’ve basically got corruption in the White House, chaos in the economy, and, by the way, corruption in the Federal Reserve system. 

Is it a coincidence that these banks that are going under happen to fall in the San Francisco Federal Reserve district, where the Fed Bank CEO, Mary Daly, thinks climate is more important than inflation, lives for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and more and more it looks like she refused to listen to her own examiners looking at these dead and dying banks — or they just didn’t do their jobs, or maybe they figured Ms. Daly didn’t want them to do their jobs? 

There’s only one positive game in town: Speaker McCarthy’s Limit, Save, Grow Act to increase the debt ceiling alongside budget reforms. That bill would do two things.  

First, it would grow the economy with lower spending, fewer regulations, no tax hikes, and reopening the oil and gas spigots. Second, for all the same reasons, the bill would reduce inflation. More growth. Less inflation.  

A year ago, I was saying: Save America. Kill the bill. Now I want to say: Save America. Pass the bill.


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