The U.S. budget deficit increased 23 percent to $1.7 trillion, an increase of $320 billion, in the year after the Biden administration pushed through the Inflation Reduction Act which it claimed would close the government’s funding gap.
Germany's Health Minister, Karl Lauterbach, declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is over in Germany, citing virus variants, vaccination rates, and hospital cases as evidence for his assessment.
In spring 2020, state and local governments were confronted with cascading costs in managing the public health response to the pandemic, spiking unemployment, and steep sales tax and user fee revenue declines resulting from business disruption and restrictions.
The S&P 500 just ended its worst month since March 2020 as investors fret about coming interest rate hikes and uncertainty over the situation in Ukraine.