The CBO Paints a Bleak Picture for Market Investors (NYSE:SPY),(NYSE:DIA),(NASDAQ:QQQQ)

The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit will reach $1.3T in 2010.  They also claim economic growth will remain 'muted' for the next few years.  That could be tough for investors in broad market ETFs like SPDR Trust, Series 1 (NYSE:SPY), Diamonds Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NYSE:DIA) and PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQQ).  That could spell some sideways trading for the next few years.  That would make Vitaliy N. Katsenelson probably just about right on in terms of it being a range bound market.  If you are interested in his work, it might be worth checking out his Active Value Investing – speech / presentation, it is really interesting read.

(Congressinal Budget Office) - The Congressional Budget Office projects that if current laws and policies remained unchanged, the federal budget would show a deficit of $1.3 trillion for fiscal year 2010. That amount would be slightly smaller than the 2009 deficit but, as a share of the economy as a whole (measured by gross domestic product, or GDP), it would still be the second largest since World War II. The budget picture remains daunting beyond this year, with deficits averaging about $600 billion annually from 2011 through 2020.

Those estimates are not intended to be a prediction of actual budget outcomes; rather, they indicate what CBO estimates would occur if current laws and policies remained in place. Toward that end, CBO’s projections presume no changes in current tax laws or spending programs. Any new legislation that reduced revenues (such as indexing the alternative minimum tax for inflation) or boosted spending (such as providing supplemental funding for military operations in Afghanistan) would increase projected deficits. For example, if all tax provisions that are scheduled to expire in the coming decade were extended and the AMT were indexed for inflation, deficits over the 2011–2020 period would be more than $7 trillion higher. (See the above chart for details on the budgetary impact of some alternative policy actions and see the sidebar for more information on CBO’s baseline.)

Accumulating deficits are pushing federal debt to significantly higher levels. CBO projects that total debt will reach $8.8 trillion by the end of 2010. At 60 percent of GDP, that would be the highest level since 1952. Under current laws and policies, CBO’s projections show that level climbing to 67 percent by 2020. As a result, interest payments on the debt are poised to skyrocket; the government’s spending on net interest will triple between 2010 and 2020, increasing from $207 billion to $723 billion.

Economic growth will probably remain muted for the next few years. The deep recession that began in 2007 appears to have ended in the middle of 2009. The economy grew during the third quarter, and early signs suggest that the labor market strengthened slightly late in 2009. CBO expects that the economy will continue to grow, although at a slower pace than in past recoveries. Hiring rates remain very low, and CBO projects that the unemployment rate will average more than 10 percent during the first half of 2010, before beginning a gradual decline. That pattern is typical of recent recessions, where hiring continues to fall for 6 to 12 months after the economy begins to grow.

Beyond the 10-year projection period, growth of spending for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will speed up from its already rapid rate. To keep federal deficits and debt from reaching levels that would substantially harm the economy, lawmakers would have to significantly increase revenues, decrease projected spending, or enact some combination of the two.

Disclosure: Long in 2X S&P 500, ProShares Ultra S&P500 (ETF) (NYSE:SSO).