Well, Biden and McCarthy have agreed in principle to a budget revision, raise the debt ceiling and avoid a US debt default. The Uniparty strikes again! No restraint of reckless Federal spending t speak of . The big donor class wins and middle class Americans lose.
Mike Shedlock (aka, Mish) makes a good point: the US is already in recession if we look at GDI (gross domestic income) rather than GDP (gross domestic product). The US has already declined two consecutive quarters in terms of negative GDI growth.
White House and Republican negotiators tentatively narrowed differences but were still clashing Friday on key issues as the Treasury Department signaled extra time was available before a potential US default.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the department expects to be able to make payments on US debts up until June 5 if lawmakers fail to act on the US debt ceiling. That set a more pointed date for a potential default but is also four days later than her previous comments eyeing trouble as soon as June 1.
The new so-called X-date buys negotiators for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden more time to strike a deal. The negotiating teams haven’t met in person since Wednesday but spoke late into the night Thursday and were in regular communication throughout the day Friday.
Yes, there isn’t really a crisis folks. Treasury collects tax dollars continuously so Treasury can prioritze debt payments and other disbursements. The only crisis is in the minds of the media.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo warned Friday that payments to Social Security beneficiaries, veterans and others would be delayed if there’s a default. But he said he’s gaining some confidence an agreement will be reached.
We’re making progress and our goal is to make sure that we get a deal because default is unacceptable,” Adeyemo said in an interview on CNN. “The president has committed to making sure that we have good-faith negotiations with the Republicans to reach a deal because the alternative is catastrophic for all Americans.”
The accord would also include a measure to upgrade the nation’s electric grid to accommodate sham renewable energy, a key climate goal, while speeding permits for pipelines and other fossil fuel projects that the GOP favors, people familiar with the deal said.
The deal would cut $10 billion from an $80 billion budget increase for the Internal Revenue Service that Biden won as part of his Inflation Reduction Act (big whoop). Republicans have warned of a wave of agents and audits while Democrats said the increase would pay for itself through less tax cheating.
What is taking shape would be far more limited than the opening offer from Republicans, who called for raising the debt ceiling through next March in exchange for 10 years of spending caps. House conservatives were already balking Thursday at the notion of a small deal, with the House Freedom Caucus sending a letter to McCarthy demanding he hold firm.
Treasury’s cash balance is at a low point and The Administration threatens Social Security recipients and veterans of delayed payments … while Biden goes on vacation for Memorial Day weekend to honor veterans??
Of course, Yellen know that all The Fed has to do to increase M2 Money growth again.
Meanwhile, bankrupties among large companies are highest since 2010.
In the mortgage market, current coupon nominal spreads 9Agency MBS 30Y coupon over Treasuries) are soaring.
Meanwhile, to honor US veterans, Biden goes on Memorial Day weekend and threaten veterans with delays in veteran benefits. Sigh.
Is Joe Biden REALLY Reverend Kane from Poltergeist II??
What happened to Biden? He used to be a “reasonable” Senator (reasonable for a racist Democrat, that is), willing to negotiate with the opposition on budgetary issues and the debt ceiling. Now we have “Progressive Joe” who is acting like crazy Progressive Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from Seattle. {Aka, Seattle’s Worst!} But his newly found Progressive identiy is leading down a terrible path. Rating agencies are putting the US of credit watch because of Biden’s newly found Progressive back bone. (Progressive means progressing towards full blown Communism).
Ratings company warns on worsening political partisanship
US AAA ratings on review with negative implications at DBRS
The tension around the US debt-limit negotiations ratcheted up after Fitch Ratings warned the nation’s AAA rating was under threat from a political standoff that’s preventing a deal.
Fitch may downgrade its assessment to reflect the increased partisanship that is hindering a resolution despite the fast-approaching so-called X date, it said, referring to the point at which Washington runs out of cash. It moved the US to “rating watch negative” under its classification. Meantime, DBRS Morningstar placed the US ratings of AAA under review “with negative implications.”
Markets have been showing increasing nervousness over the standoff, with Treasury-bill yields slated to mature early next month surging past 7%, while the S&P 500 Index has declined for two days. Economists project a US default could trigger a recession, with widespread job losses and a surge in borrowing costs.
Fitch’s warning “underscores the need for swift bipartisan action by Congress to raise or suspend the debt limit and avoid a manufactured crisis for our economy,” said Lily Adams, a spokesperson from Treasury.
Biden’s childish refusal to reduce his insanely huge budget (crammed with pork for large donors and Progressives) is causing ripples to be felt overseas. Look look at the Japanese Yen.
Pramila Jayapal, Joe Biden’s intellectual soulmate.
I have gotten a flood of emails and text messages asking about what happens if Biden defaults on the US debt. In short, Biden has made a career out of spending money, as has Speaker McCarthy. They both have an incentive to raise the debt ceiling, but whether it is cuts to Biden’s insane budget (higher than Covid-era spending) and wants to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for it. McCarthy wants a trimmed budget (aka, back to pre-Covid spending levels) and NOT raises taxes. They will eventually agree somewhere in the middle (US Congress member Pramila Jayapal will be outraged, but then again, she is ALWAYS outraged like Senator Elizabeth Warren) and AOC.
The Federal Reserve has taken a brief respite from fighting inflation that they helped cause. But with $188 TRILLION in unfunded entitlements promised by politicians, The Fed will undoubtedly start buying assets again (aka, QEInfinity) and the debt ceiling will keep being raised. In essence, the DC merry-go-round is broken and politicians will keep pushing it around until it collapses.
For the moment, The Federal Reserve is reducing M2 Money (green line). With it, the US Dollar (blue line) has declined. Gold (white line fever) is on the rise along with The Fed’s effective funds rate.
WTI crude is up over 1% this AM. And gold is up 2.29%. Heating oil is up 3.56%.
Face it, I have no confidence in Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, one of the biggest propronents of MMT (modern monetary theory or borrow and spend without consequences). Yellen is NOT making lose my blues.
But that is where we are in the US. A President who acts like a spoiled 12 year old bully, members of Congress like Cori Bush and AOC who think The Fed can just print trillions MORE and give it to preferred groups. Senator Diane Feinstein (soon to be replaced by a horrible human being in the person of Adam Schiff). John Fetterman, the next Bernie Sanders?? C’mon DC. A true ship of fools. And dangerous ones at that.
So since September 26, 2022, we have seen a fundametal shift in markets. The US Dollar is down -21% since September 26, 2022 while Bitcoin is up 41%, Gold is up 21% and Silver is up 28%.
Biden is sitting pretty, If McCarthy chickens out and agrees to Biden’s outrageous budget, Biden looks like a hero. If Biden defaults, the MSM media will blame McCarthy and Republicans, so Biden wins. No wonder Biden said he isn’t worried about the debt ceiling negotations. He wins no matter what, And we the 99% get screwed.
Yes, the clock is ticking on a possible debt default and Biden is off in Hiroshima Japan instead of negotiating with House Speaker McCarthy.
The treasury cash balance is only $18 billion away from Yellen’s minimum balance redline of $50 billion. That’s one day of spending in crazy spending Washington DC.
Reminder, the US already has $32 TRILLION in debt and politicians have promised $188 TRILLION in entitlement spending. yet we are sending billions to Ukraine, etc. Yet Biden is visiting Japan (hide your little girls, Hiroshima!) and Biden/Congress still haven’t solved the debt limit crisis and Biden’s insane budget yet. Meanwhile, Americans are suffering from Biden’s inflation (aka, Bidenflation) and bad economic policies.
As many as 89.1 million American adults (or about 38.5%) were found to experience some form of difficulty in covering expenses between April 26 and May 8, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from the Household Pulse Survey. This is up from 34.4% in 2022 and 26.7% during the same period in 2021.
The rising trend is alarming but not surprising. Consumers have been battered by two years of negative real wage growth.
As wages fail to outpace the cost of living, many consumers have burned through savings and resorted to credit cards. The latest revolving credit data shows consumers appear to be ‘strong,’ but that’s only because they use their plastic cards more than ever to survive.
The Household Pulse Survey found struggling households were primarily based across West Coast and the South.
Compared with the same period last year, the survey found 2.7 million more households were relying on credit cards to cover expenses.
Consumers have record card debt and ultra-low savings rates and are paying some of the highest borrowing costs in a generation (the average interest rate on cards now exceeds 20%). This debt is becoming insurmountable for some as delinquencies rise.
And what we have now is new debit and credit card data published by the Bank of America Institute that shows not just spending slowdown for lower-income consumers, but also the upper-income cohort is finally starting to crack.
However, it is appropriate that Biden is visiting Hiroshima Japan where a nuke was detonated to help end World War II.. Biden is doing the same to the US.
I wish Biden would spend more time trying to negotiate with McCarthy to end the debt crisis rather than stir up race hatred like he did at Howard University graduation. C’mon Joe! White “supremacy” is not the most dangerous terrorist threat. I would actually say that Biden, Yellen and Schumer (throw in Pelosi’s spending splurge as Speaker) are the biggest terrorist threat. They are the 4 horsemen of the US debt apocalypse.
Let’s see how Bidenflation (caused by staggering Federal misspending) and years of Yellen’s TLTL (too low too long) monetary policy has caused a massive dislocation in the housing market.
The February Case-Shiller National home price index less core inflation (CPI less food and energy) year-over-year is declining by -3.5%. This is happening as REAL average weekly earnings growth is at -1.06% YoY and has been negative growth for 25 straigth months.
Look at The Fed’s massive overreaction to the unnecessary government shutdowns of economies and schools. It really sent home price growth soaring, then when The Fed starts slowing the monetary stimulus, we get the largest slowdown of REAL home price growth since 2012.
The 4 Horsemen of the US Debt Apocalypse. I would add Mitch McConnell and Fed Chair Powell, but then would have an entire Cavalry company like George Armstrong Custer had at Little Big Horn.
The Federal government in Washington DC is broken beyond repair. Politicians get elected by promising free or cheap things, so they keep delivering the bacon. Or pork to political donors. The top 1% get massive payoffs (like green energy subsidies or bank bailouts), the bottom 99% get out of control entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And other unsustainable entitlements. In fact, student loans are now an entitlement since some voters will vote for the corrupt politician (no, Joe Biden isn’t the only corrupt politician in Washington DC) who will forgive their student loans.
In fact, we now have $187 TRILLION in UNFUNDED liabilities that were promised to the 99%. The 1% will always get their political contributions paid. Biden and Schumer have promised their donor class trillions in spending, so that are threatening to let the US debt default to protect the 1%.
And unfunded entitlements are expected to soar, particularly Medicare.
Mandatory spending is expected to soar while discretionary spending is almost flat in terms of growth.
Meanwile, the US credit default swap remains elevated as the US Treasury short curve (2Y-3M) is near the most inverted in history.
And this headline, “Biden Not Ready Yet to Invoke 14th Amendment to Avoid US Default”. That means Biden would adopt extraordinary powers to prevent a debt default. Hence, the idiocy like the trillion dollar coin.
Nobel Laureate and Statist useful idiot Paul Krugman wants to keep spending trillions. As a result, he argues “Don’t worry about the declining US dollar hegemony … as long as the US doesn’t default.” Translation: Krugman agrees with Dementia Joe that Republicans should just pass Biden’s budget with no strings attached. C’mon Krugman. The growth of BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa and growing) is partly due to 1) perceived weakness of Senile Grandpa Joe and 2) the fiscal spending and debt growth in Washington DC. Of course it matters, but Krugman wants to keep spending on green lunacy and entitlements until we break the back of the country. Sounds like Krugman is on board with Cloward-Piven.
They can’t cut promised entitlements. Look at France where Macron raised the retirement age by 2 years and there are endless riots. So debt default is the only option, though painful.
Will Congress and future administrations stop prominsing endless spending that benefits the 1%? Not likely. Our political system is hopelessly broken.
I am sure that China’s Communist Party has sent Dementia Joe a message “We own you! You better not default on what you owe us!!” Or default so we can own you financially.
Three of the four horsemen of the financial apocalypse. Yellen is the fourth horseman, but is too short to appear in the picture.
As Connor MacLeod said in the film Highlander, “There can only be one!” The US banking system under Joe Biden’s Reign of Error is like the film Highlander: apparently, there can only be one bank. And it is likely JP Morgan Chase.
Take the JP Morgan Chase (JPMC) acquisition of First Republic Bank:
In Acquiring First Republic Bank, JP Morgan Has:
Bypassed laws against acquiring bank while controlling 10%+ of US deposits
Shared $13 billion in losses with the FDIC
Received a $50 billion loan from the FDIC
Effectively bought back its own deposits
Expects to profit $5 billion+ over the next 5 years
This crisis has taught us that rules don’t matter in times of panic, particularly to regulators.
And now we have PacWest Bancorp. Lender says it’s been approached by potential investors. Bill Ackman warns US regional banking system at risk.
The turmoil at PacWest shows how investor angst still remains elevated after a string of failures and deposit outflows in the sector despite Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s assurance Wednesday that authorities were closer to containing the crisis. It’s reignited the debate over whether more US regional lenders will fall after this year’s collapse of SVB Financial Group’s Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Capital Corp., Signature Bank and most recently First Republic Bank.
Smaller banks are under pressure after a year of interest-rate hikes hammered the value of their bond holdings and drove unrealized losses to an estimated $1.84 trillion. Trouble in commercial real estate is adding to the pain, while depositors take their money out to seek better returns elsewhere. These stresses have put the spotlight on these lenders, which typically have fewer resources to defend themselves.
We are seeing a consolidation of the banking system .. again as smaller and regional banks fail and get gobbled up by the Too-Big-To-Fail (TBTF) banks like … JP Morgan Chase.
Biden’s Reign of Error is not over yet. His campaign slogan (which was also Bill Clinton’s campaign reelection slogan) is “Finish the job!” With Biden’s idiotic mortgage idea of punishing borrowers with good credit and giving subsidies to those with bad credit, Biden is trying to finish off the US economy and banking system.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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