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Biden’s meeting with Asean leaders is the first meeting of a US President since 2017, was rescheduled twice, and came a year after Blinken did not show up for his first virtual meeting with the Asean ministers which the US had arranged.
The US economy is going through an unusual period with many trouble spots, including an unsustainable wage growth from a tight labor market, inflation from supply-side disruption triggered by a confluence of factors such as the trade war with China and the Russia-Ukraine war. Moreover, the monetization of the historically high federal budget deficit of $5.90 trillion in fiscal 2020 and 2021 has created asset demand that pushes up inflation.
