Is there still a global chip shortage? Will prices bounce back to the way they were on par with pre-covid inflation rates?
no because inflation prices are usually kept long term. It's the rate of inflation that economists refer to when we are in a inflationary period. Consumers get used to price point and corporations and businesses have no incentive to go back to old pricing because....why would they? Basic capitalism.
Okay, that hyperfocuses on supply and ignores demand...notably why there's still high enough demand to support the new price point.
That would be an issue.... if we get there. As of 8/24 interest payments is ~17% of the debt. And this snapshot is when we have had highest interest rates (highest in ~40 years) with interest rates starting to creep lower.
The irony of course is we didn't make the printer go brrrrrr and we didn't really toss out a bunch of money from a helicopter after 2008 crash.
I think we tend to downplay what the American consumer along with low unemployment can do. There are certainly lots of folk struggling in America, but clearly there are a lot of folks not.
At a projected $892 billion in 2024, interest payments on the federal debt represent 3.1% of GDP in 2024. Since 1940, net outlays for interest have never exceeded 3.2 percent of GDP.
