Monday, February 13, 2017

Budget and Economic Outlook: 2017 to 2027

https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/reports/52370-outlookonecolumn.pdf

The CBO recently released their latest 10 year budget outlook. I'm looking for their worst-case scenario and when they think it might occur. Here it is:

 Beyond the 10-year period, if current laws remained in place, the pressures that contributed to rising deficits during the baseline period would accelerate and push debt up even more sharply. Three decades from now, for instance, debt held by the public is projected to be nearly twice as high, relative to GDP, as it is this year—and a higher percentage than any previously recorded. Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences for the budget and the nation:
  • Federal spending on interest payments would increase substantially as a result of increases in interest rates, such as those projected to occur over the next few years.
  • Because federal borrowing reduces total saving in the economy over time, the nation’s capital stock would ultimately be smaller, and productivity and total wages would be lower.
  • Lawmakers would have less flexibility to use tax and spending policies to respond to unexpected challenges.
  • The likelihood of a fiscal crisis in the United States would increase. There would be a greater risk that investors would become unwilling to finance the government’s borrowing unless they were compensated with very high interest rates; if that happened, interest rates on federal debt would rise suddenly and sharply.
This is my interpretation of what is being said here.  In 3 decades from now, that is, in 2047, a fiscal crisis is likely to occur unless major changes are made.

When do they expect the trillion dollar deficits to re-occur?  In 2023, when the budget deficit is conveniently predicted to be exactly $1.000 trillion.

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