Weekly Report:One Bad Week

Despite promising to reduce government spending in all three of his presidential campaigns, President Trump, with the assistance of congressional Republicans and Democrats, has continued to grow the government debt.

Concerns over all but a handful of politicians in Washington, DC supporting adding to the government’s debt, along with worries over the effects of the ongoing Iran war, caused the interest rate on long term Treasury bonds (referred to as the yield) to increase. They reached their highest level since June of 2007 — a little over a year before the beginning of the great recession.

Following the yield increase, the Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that it would start purchasing at least twice the amount of long-term bonds that it had previously planned to purchase, reducing the supply of long-term bonds in an effort to reduce the yield. The Treasury’s intervention initially lowered yields. However, the next day the yield on Treasury bonds rose again.

The Treasury and the Federal Reserve will feel continued pressure to keep interest rates low. This is because a small percentage increase in interest rates can cause a big increase in US debt payments.

By keeping interstate rates artificially low, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury weaken the value of the dollar. This, along with the skyrocketing fuel prices as a result of the Iran war, is why wages are not keeping pace with the rising cost of living. Even many of the Americans whose paychecks are increasing are falling behind.

This erosion of the dollar’s value is why 29 percent of Americans have used buy now, pay later loans in the last year to pay for expenses such as rent and groceries. Another consequence of the dollar’s shrinking value is that, according to a survey by digital finance company Achieve, 53 percent of Americans are carrying credit card balances for necessary expenses.