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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Personal Finance / Macroeconomic Trends & Risks
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Author: Goofyhoofy ✸✹🐝 HONORARY
SHREWD   😊 😞
Number: of 4460 
Subject: Closing the books on 2025
Date: 10/10/25 9:20 AM
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WSJ gives an analysis of the US at the end of the fiscal year:

Quick bullet point summary; much more detail at the link:

Tariffs Are Way Up. Interest on Debt Tops $1 Trillion. And DOGE Didn’t Do Much.

As the books closed on U.S. government’s fiscal 2025, here’s what has changed about the federal budget—and what hasn’t

Here are five things we learned about the U.S. government’s finances based on the year-end figures released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office:

1. Tariffs are bringing in real money.
The U.S. collected $195 billion in customs duties, more than double the prior year. That doesn’t capture the full jump because tariff rates only ramped up in April, halfway through the year.

2. Interest costs keep climbing.
By one CBO metric, net interest on the public debt topped $1 trillion for the first time—more than the country spent on Medicare or defense. For every $5 the government collected in taxes, about $1 went to pay interest.

3. Spending didn’t move much under DOGE.
As the Trump administration started, Elon Musk claimed his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, could achieve $2 trillion in savings—equal to more than a quarter of total spending in fiscal 2024.

4. Social-program spending continues to grow.
The main reason spending keeps rising is that the costs of the biggest programs, Social Security and Medicare, are driven by an aging population and rising health costs. Both are practically untouchable politically.

5. Deficits and debt remain historically high.

Typically, the budget deficit increases during recessions and shrinks during economic expansions. This time is different. The deficit came in at $1.8 trillion for 2025, virtually unchanged from 2024, despite a still-expanding economy.

wsj.com - Federal budget fiscal
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