Keeping in mind that every penny of deficit spending is stimulus, why does the U.S. economy need over $100 billion of stimulus per month in what is considered by many commentators to be a good economy?
From BNN Bloomberg, June 12:
The US federal government’s budget deficit hit $1.16 trillion for the first eight months of the fiscal year, a 191% increase from a year ago.
The deficit for the month of May was $240 billion, according to data released Monday by the Treasury Department. That’s more than double the deficit in May 2022. Year-on-year comparisons are adjusted to account for calendar differences....
....MORE
And why does the country get so little growth from the stimulus?
From TradingEconomics:
GDP in the United States is expected to reach 23618.00 USD Billion by the end of 2023, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. In the long-term, the United States GDP is projected to trend around 23878.00 USD Billion in 2024 and 24332.00 USD Billion in 2025, according to our econometric models.
That's $260 billion in increased GDP for a cost of an estimated $1.4 trillion? Not a lot of bang for the buck.
And the forecast increase of $454 billion from '24 to '25 comes at a cost of
2023 1,569 trillion
2024 1,846 trillion
2025 1,671 trillion
2026 1,521trillion
—from the President's Budget of the U.S. Government Fiscal Year 2024 forecast Table S–4. Proposed Budget by Category pp138
From July 2021's "Diminishing Returns: Getting Less And Less For Each Dollar of Deficit Spending Means Disaster Is Locked In"
This is a real problem, whether you call it "Marginal Productivity of Debt" or "Debt Saturation" or "Bang-for-the-Buck"*, we are running faster and faster just to stay in place. This is not a new phenomena, the piddly 6.5% GDP growth we just saw, despite the trillions and trillions in new debt is just the latest example...
Now I know the President's budget is on a fiscal year and the GDP numbers are on a calendar year but the point withstands that petty quibble compared to the importance of the original question:
"Why does the U.S. economy need over $100 billion of stimulus per month?..."
