News Briefs

Kate Davidson and Daniel Kruger of The Wall Street Journal report that growing U.S. public debt and rising interest rates are increasing government borrowing costs. They estimate that the government will spend more on interest payments than Medicaid by 2020 and more than national defense by 2023.  WSJ

Bloomberg News reports China’s policymakers are expected to increase their budget deficit in 2019 amid sluggish third quarter growth and a trade war with the United States. Most surveyed economists expect Chinese authorities to increase the budget deficit target to between 2.6 percent and 3.0 percent of output, up from 2.6% this year. Bloomberg

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is broadening its trade conflict with China to counter the theft of intellectual property. The administration plans to use export controls and targeted indictments of Chinese companies to protect American firms that produce key technological goods that are unavailable elsewhere in the world. WSJ