The State of Play - October 18, 2023

In this edition: America's budget deficit, ESG rating and company size, hydrogen hubs and another potential dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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America’s debt and spending priorities

There has been a lot of talk recently about America’s rising debt and our collective shrug. With the Fed increasing interest rates for the past 18 months, our spending on merely servicing our debt is only going to get more unwieldy. As the Economist noted earlier this month,

In the fiscal year ending on September 30th 2023, interest payments on America’s debt totalled some $660bn, up from $475bn the previous year. As recently as May 2022 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan number-cruncher, had forecast such costs would be $442bn, or 33% lower.

Source: Economist