American Economics Thread

Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
Americans are (again) cooking the numbers on inflation CPI data

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
the cost of buying or renting shelter is up nearly 20% over the past year. Yet the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for shelter reported Jan. 12 by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an increase of just 4.2 over the past year.
Private surveys conducted by the big rental sites, Zillow and Apartmentlist.com, show increases of 13% to 18% during 2021, and the Case-Shiller Index of US home prices jumped 18% in the year through October.
Who are you going to believe, to paraphrase Groucho Marx – the US government or your own eyes?
Lol
jan12a.png
 

Anlsvrthng

Captain
Registered Member
The US is basically inflating its debts to nothing at the expense of its people.

Nothing new here.
[Literally everything in the US] > poor people
2% interest rate on the USA debt would means as big burden increase on the budget as the whole military outlay.


Inflation is an uncharted territory , question is if the demand for USA debt will stay.
 

Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
2% interest rate on the USA debt would means as big burden increase on the budget as the whole military outlay.


Inflation is an uncharted territory , question is if the demand for USA debt will stay.
2% nominal interest rate, but in real terms you are getting negative returns because inflation is higher. That means that debt is reduced every year the nominal interest rate is lower than inflation.

Demand for US debt will stay because when they raise rates capital will abandon EM for US debt

Sprinkle a bit of "Russia war in Europe! EU doomed!" stories and you can understand why capital would fly towards the US

Its always the same story. Whenever the US needs capital, it will manufacture a crisis somewhere in the world which would make investors to go the "safe heaven", US treasuries.
 

tokenanalyst

Brigadier
Registered Member
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

the u.s inflation reached 7% but @sleeystudent or whoever he called himself now told me that the u.s can print money to eternity and nothing like this will happen
Although it is correct that there is too much cheap money in the economy, we must also consider the problems of demand and supply. The biggest mistake that many financial analysts who advocate herd immunity make is to think that the economy will function normally if the virus runs its course, the problem is that they forget that the sick do not work, imagine that in a company on the 25 % of employees get sick, the company will not function normally. Products and services will inevitably be affected.
 

Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
Although it is correct that there is too much cheap money in the economy, we must also consider the problems of demand and supply. The biggest mistake that many financial analysts who advocate herd immunity make is to think that the economy will function normally if the virus runs its course, the problem is that they forget that sick do not work, imagine that in a company on the 25 % of employees get sick, the company will not function normally. Products and services will inevitably be affected.
Good point. It will be interesting to see West's data about for the December-January months
 

zbb

Junior Member
Registered Member
Not sure where else to put this. US spends 3.75% of GDP on military compared to only 1.75% for China. SIPRI:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Remember that the US military budget quoted in the media is often the base defense department budget and does not include many items that would fall under military budget in most other countries.

1. US foreign wars and military actions (e.g. Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria) are funded through special appropriations for overseas contingencies and are not included in the defense department's base budget. During the height of Afghanistan and Iraq, these reached as high as $200 billion a year.
2. Veterans benefits are handled by the Veterans Administration, which is outside of the defense department budget. For 2022 fiscal year, the VA's budget is $270 billion.
3. R&D and maintenance of nuclear weapons are under the Department of Energy.
4. Border patrols and coast guards are under the Department of Homeland Security.
5. Numerous intelligence agencies are under various other US government departments.

If all of the above are included, actual US military spending is ~$1 trillion a year and close to 5% of GDP.

Also, the SIPRI consistently state much larger numbers for China's military budget than the official numbers without providing any source for where the additional spending comes from. China's official defense budget for 2021 is actually only 1.3% of GDP.
 
Last edited:

Maikeru

Captain
Registered Member
Remember that the US military budget quoted in the media is often the base defense department budget and does not include many items that would fall under military budget in most other countries.

1. US foreign wars and military actions (e.g. Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria) are funded through special appropriations for overseas contingencies and are not included in the defense department's base budget. During the height of Afghanistan and Iraq, these reached as high as $200 billion a year.
2. Veterans benefits are handled by the Veterans Administration, which is outside of the defense department budget. For 2022 fiscal year, the VA's budget is $270 billion.
3. R&D and maintenance of nuclear weapons are under the Department of Energy.
4. Border patrols and coast guards are under the Department of Homeland Security.
5. Numerous intelligence agencies are under various other US government departments.

If all of the above are included, actual US military spending is ~$1 trillion a year and close to 5% of GDP.

Also, the SIPRI consistently state much larger numbers for China's military budget than the official numbers without providing any source for where the additional spending comes from. China's official defense budget for 2021 is actually only 1.3% of GDP.
TBF these sorts of things go on in all many countries seeking to artificially inflate or reduce their military spending headline figures. You could argue that PAP and China Coast Guard should fall under military spending.
 
Top