America’s federal budget deficit rose to $1.8 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year, reaching the highest level in three years, according to new Congressional Budget Office estimates released Tuesday.

The increase from last year’s $1.7 trillion deficit came as tax revenue failed to keep pace with the rising costs of government programs and the mounting interest on the national debt.

The figures show the continuing fiscal strain facing the U.S. economy, where the national debt is approaching $36 trillion. Despite steady economic growth and low unemployment, annual deficits are growing again after declining from pandemic-era highs. In September, the final month of the fiscal year, the United States recorded a $63 billion surplus, according to CBO.

America’s reliance on borrowed money to fund its priorities and pay its bills is not expected to end anytime soon.

The official deficit numbers for the fiscal year are expected to be released by the Treasury Department in the coming weeks. The figures have been obscured by accounting quirks in recent years related to a student loan forgiveness program that President Joe Biden proposed in 2022 that the Supreme Court later struck down. The budget office noted that the federal deficit would have been $110 billion lower in 2024 than it was in 2023 if not for the budgetary effects of that plan being overturned.

The deficit estimates from the budget office are smaller than what it projected earlier this year, but the fiscal situation remains fraught. High interest rates have sent the cost of the government’s payments on borrowed money soaring. Federal spending has also been difficult to corral, in part because the cost of some government programs has exceeded initial expectations.

The IRS has paid out more than $200 billion associated with a pandemic-era benefit known as the employee retention tax credit. That program was originally expected to cost the federal government $55 billion over a decade when it was enacted in 2020. And the Inflation Reduction Act, which was originally projected to cost less than $400 billion over a decade, is now forecast by some economists to cost more than $1 trillion.

The federal government spent $6.8 trillion in 2024, a 10% increase from the prior year. Of that, $240 billion was spent on interest costs, which surged 34% from last year because of high interest rates. Spending on Social Security and Medicare benefits also increased substantially.

— Associated Press

McDonald’s sues beef producers over pricing

McDonald’s has some beef with the world’s largest meat packers.

The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Co. — and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically. In a federal complaint, filed Friday in New York, McDonald’s accused the companies of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charge “illegally inflated” amounts.

This collusion caused the beef market to become “a monopoly in which direct purchasers were forced to buy at prices dictated by (the meat packers),” McDonald’s suit reads — later noting that the injury it has sustained as one of those buyers is what “antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”

McDonald’s alleges that the meat packers’ conspiracy dates back nearly a decade, at least as early as January 2015, and continues today. Its suit argues these companies’ actions violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.

Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. But these companies have faced federal probes and allegations of price fixing before.

Cargill is based in Wayzata.

Brazil judge reinstates X after compromise

The Brazilian Supreme Court’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday authorized the restoration of social media platform X´s service in Brazil, over a month after its nationwide shutdown, according to a statement posted on the court’s website.

Elon Musk’s X was blocked on Aug. 30 in the highly online country of 213 million people — and one of X’s biggest markets, with estimates of its user base ranging from 20 million to 40 million. De Moraes ordered the shutdown after a monthslong dispute with Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Musk had disparaged de Moraes, calling him an authoritarian and a censor, despite the fact his rulings, including X’s nationwide suspension, were repeatedly upheld by his peers.

Despite Musk’s public bravado, X ultimately complied with all of de Moraes’ demands. They included blocking certain accounts from the platform, paying outstanding fines and naming a legal representative in the country. Failure to do the latter had triggered the suspension.

China, EU trade dispute gets spirited

Raising the stakes in a trade dispute with the European Union, the Chinese government said Tuesday it would impose temporary penalties on brandy from Europe and was mulling broader tariffs on European goods.

China’s Ministry of Commerce issued the brandy measures after member countries of the European Union voted Friday to proceed with anti-subsidy tariffs on electric cars from China. The ministry said that brandy importers would temporarily be required to post deposits of up to 39% on the wholesale value of shipments to China.

The deposits would then be forfeited and become tariffs if China eventually makes the measures permanent. The ministry accused European brandy producers of hurting Chinese producers by dumping brandy at unfairly low prices in the Chinese market.

The action produced an immediate slump in the stocks of big European brandy makers like LVMH, the corporate parent of Moët Hennessy, whose shares fell nearly 4%.

— From news services