Growing budget deficits have added to the nation’s debt at a speedy rate since President Trump took office. The debt has grown some 16 percent since Trump’s inauguration when it stood at $19.9 trillion. It passed $22 trillion for the first time just 10 months ago.

Of the $23 trillion figure, just under $17 trillion was in the category of debt held by the public, which is a more useful gauge of the debt the government has to pay down, and the number typically used in calculating the nation’s debt burden. The other $6 trillion comes from loans within government bodies.

Still, the $23 trillion figure marks a milestone.

“Reaching $23 trillion in debt on Halloween is a scary milestone for our economy and the next generation, but Washington shows no fear,” said Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the fiscally conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

“Piling on debt like this is especially unwise and unnecessary in a strong economy,” he added.

High levels of debt can push up borrowing costs and interest rates, “crowd out” private borrowing and weigh down budgets. In the 2019 fiscal year, for example, the government had to devote $376 billion just to pay the interest on the debt, equivalent to nearly half the defense budget, and more than the amount spent on the combined costs of education, agriculture, transportation and housing.

The deficit for 2019 came in just under $1 trillion, at $984 billion, and is only expected to grow in the coming years.

While the main drivers of spending are mandatory programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and anti-poverty programs, major legislation has grown the deficit considerably since Trump came to office.

The 2017 GOP tax law was estimated to cost $1.9 trillion over a decade, while bipartisan deals to boost defense and domestic spending ramped up outlays each year.

Reference: US Debt Clock https://www.usdebtclock.org/

Source: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/468600-us-debt-surpasses-23-trillion-for-first-time

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The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average had its steepest drop on Christmas Eve in its 122-year history. It also was the worst Christmas Eve for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the first time the broader S&P 500 ever had more than a 1 percent drop on Dec. 24. The loss for the S&P 500 put the index into bear market, where it joined the Nasdaq.

If the markets had not closed at 1 p.m. ET for the holiday, the damage might have been worse.

A trifecta of concerns drove investors to sell: The prospect of rising interest rates; global economic weakness; and the likelihood that the partial government shutdown will extend into next year.

Congress missed a midnight Friday deadline for getting a spending bill passed, resulting in a partial government shutdown. No votes are scheduled to end the stalemate until after Christmas.

Monday’s hammering followed a stomach-churning week, when the Dow lost 6.9 percent and the S&P 500 tumbled 7.1 percent. The Nasdaq gave up 8.4 percent, making it the first of the three major averages to fall into bear market territory.

Concerns about the ability of the markets to handle the sell-off promoted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin late Sunday to contact the CEOs of the nation’s six largest banks and convene a meeting of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. That group, which includes officials in the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, met to ensure the financial system had adequate liquidity to handle all the selling.

Mnuchin “confirmed that they have not experienced any clearance or margin issues and that the markets continue to function properly,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The day’s downdraft hammered crude oil prices: West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude oil, tumbled 6.7 percent to $42.53 per barrel.

The only shred of good news Monday came when China said it plans to remove import and export tariffs in 2019 on a range of goods, including import taxes on alternative meals used in animal feed, to secure supplies of raw materials amid trade tensions with the United States and boosting outbound cargoes.

In Monday’s Asian trading, China’s Shanghai Composite ended the day up 0.4 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.4 percent.

And Japan’s markets were closed.

In Europe trading, London’s FTSE was down 0.5 percent, France’s CAC traded down 1.5 percent.  Germany’s markets were closed for Christmas Eve.

On Friday, stocks ended a choppy session sharply lower with the Nasdaq Composite in bear market territory.

The tech-heavy index lost 3 percent, or more than 195 points, the Dow Jones Industrials fell over 414 points, or nearly 2 percent, while the S&P shed 2 percent plus, ending the week with a third down session.

Amid the selling, investors did get decent economic data on Friday. Third-quarter gross domestic product came in at 3.4 percent in a third update released on Friday, in line with analyst expectations and slightly lower than the first reading of 3.5 percent, according to the Commerce Department.

FOX Business’ Ken Martin contributed to this story.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/dow-plunges-650-points-in-worst-christmas-eve-trading-session-ever

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