The United States faces two big risks to its economic prosperity, but both are avoidable. In the near-term, a still fragile recovery is struggling to take hold. Over the medium and long-term, our debt is projected to continue growing faster than the economy. It is simply on an unsustainable path.
Economic growth will remain slow this year, CBO anticipates, as gradual improvement in many of the forces that drive the economy is offset by the effects of budgetary changes that are scheduled to occur under current law. After this year, economic growth will speed up, CBO projects, causing the unemployment rate to decline and inflation and interest rates to eventually rise from their current low levels. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate is expected to remain above 7½ percent through next year; if that happens, 2014 will be the sixth consecutive year with unemployment exceeding 7½ percent of the labor force—the longest such period in the past 70 years.
With enormous struggle, the sluggish economy managed to create 2.2 million jobs last year. But beginning at the end of this month, at least half that amount — more than a million jobs — will start to disappear because of a mindless government austerity program that no one in Washington seems able to stop.
Like suspense, confusion and midnight deals? Draw a big red circle around March.
The federal budget deficit will drop below $1 trillion for the first time in President Barack Obama’s tenure in office, a new report said Tuesday.
A sudden outburst of bipartisanship is sweeping Washington, presenting President Obama with an opportunity to move his agenda, but also a challenge to get it done quickly before this window inevitably slams shut.
China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show.
Washington is entering a distinctly familiar situation: a paralyzing legislative stalemate with outsize importance for the nation’s economic and homeland security.
The federal government helped bring the economic recovery to a virtual halt late last year as cuts in military spending and other factors overwhelmed the Federal Reserve’s expanded campaign to stimulate growth.
The Federal Debt Ceiling is a looming catastrophe one day and a crisis averted the next. It seems a never-ending cycle. WSJ’s David Wessel explains the basics of the debt limit and why you should care.
A bipartisan group in the U.S. House of Representatives is attempting to craft a bill that would give millions of undocumented immigrants a way to become citizens, House aides said on Thursday, mirroring an effort in the Senate.
Congressional leaders sound increasingly resigned to the possibility that across-the-board government spending cuts could start taking effect on March 1, as scheduled, and continue for at least a few weeks.