State and local governments increased their borrowing by 8.3 percent on an annualized basis between April and June, according to the Fed flow of funds report. While the number isn’t eye-popping against the past decade’s history, what’s unusual is that states, cities and towns have kept on borrowing even as people have cut their own borrowing, down 1.7 percent.
In other words, people seem to have learned their lesson and have changed theirr behavior (whether voluntarily or not), while state and local governments and the people they employ haven’t yet bowed to reality.
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