As the economic effects of the COVID pandemic spread across the world in March and April, the air was filled with promises that poorer countries would be assisted with aid and debt relief to deal with a crisis that threatened to plunge millions, above all children, into the most abject poverty. In April, International Monetary…
The news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is against closing EU borders to halt a second deadly wave of coronavirus cases made me realize – they just don’t get is yet. Forty-five million people have been infected, and over a million have already died, and the best our leaders can come up with is guesswork and…
In fiscal year 2020, which ended on Sept. 30, the U.S. government set some impressive new records. The deficit came in at $3.1 trillion, twice the previous record of $1.4 trillion in 2009, which was set during the Great Recession, and three times the 2019 deficit of about $1 trillion. Federal spending hit $6.5 trillion,…
Lebanese politicians are scrambling at home and security chiefs are conferring abroad to form a new government in line with French-set deadlines. The new government is expected to embody a new political pact called for by French President Emmanuel Macron during his first visit to Beirut after the deadly port explosion on 4 August. Macron…
Here comes the first October surprise. US President Trump and the First Lady have both tested positive for Covid-19 after one his advisors, Hope Hicks, tested positive for Covid-19 and has also started showing symptoms. She travelled on Air Force One with him to Minnesota last week, and was additionally seen maskless near another presidential…
According to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) latest “Update on the Budget Outlook,” this year’s $3.3 trillion federal deficit is not just three times larger than last year: it is the largest federal deficit in history. The CBO update also predicts that the federal debt will equal 104 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP)…
