Game It

The Washington Post game on the debt problem:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/national-debt-cut-game/?itid=hp_temp4-app-Debt-Ceiling_p009_f001

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A sensible outcome to this stalemate might be: both sides cave. The Republicans chill and

let Treaury pay what the government owes; the Democrats get real, and lead form the Presidency.

The Liberty Bond Act of 1917 needs a rvamping. The US should stop living in a permanent

war economy. Deficit financing might be looked at living in a globalized world entails. 

Details to come...

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source: Le Monde

author: Le Monde, AFP

translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise

Public finances: the government will freeze an additional 1% of the 2023 budget appropriations to better maintain its position

Elisabeth Borne validated, during a meeting in Matignon, Tuesday, a proposal from Bruno Le Maire to increase the credits set aside for the current year.

The government will freeze an additional 1% of the appropriations of its 2023 budget to maintain its trajectory in terms of public finances, announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Tuesday, May 23, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire , and the entourage of Elisabeth Borne.

The Prime Minister validated, during a meeting at Matignon, a proposal from her Minister of the Economy which consists of “an increase in the credits placed in reserve – frozen – in the 2023 budget, up to 1% of the credits planned in the finance law (excluding salaries of civil servants) , “said the entourage of Ms. Borne  . “I proposed to the Prime Minister to take an additional precautionary measure to meet our public finance commitments in 2023 ,” Mr. Le Maire told AFP.

This 1% freeze “applies to all state credits except salaries. This represents 1.8 billion euros and this 1.8 billion euros is added to the 5% of State credits which had already been frozen for a total amount of frozen credits of 10 billion euros, added the minister. This measure "should guarantee that we will meet our public finance objectives in 2023, that is to say return to below a 5% deficit" , he argued.

The government is awaiting the rating of its debt, scheduled for the beginning of June, by the financial agency Standard and Poor's. At the end of April, the Fitch agency lowered the French rating , citing the strong social tensions at work around  pension reform. Mr. Le Maire had then assured that he would “pass structuring reforms” .

After reaching 4.7% of GDP in 2022, the public deficit should rise slightly this year (4.9%) then gradually decline from 2024 to reach 2.7% in 2027, within European guideliness, according to projections for the coming years, presented in April. Deleveraging should also experience a boost, with public debt representing 108.3% of GDP in 2027, but still far from the European target of 60%. It was at 111.6% of GDP at the end of 2022.