I.M.F. warns of inflation and a slowing recovery as it lowers its forecast.

Okay, Biden's bills are fucked, justifiably. It has always been the case that the virus and the economy are Siamese twins and that the virus twin must be welled before the economy twin can prosper. We, the world, but especially the United States, are to slow, intellectually and temporally. The virus is smarter and faster than we are. The chances increase that the twins kill Biden, too.

The global economic recovery is losing momentum as the resurgence of the coronavirus and widespread supply chain disruptions threaten to be a drag on a world economy that is trying to find its footing, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Turbulence in rich countries has begun to weigh on the global outlook in recent months, the I.M.F. said in its latest World Economic Outlook report. The economic growth forecast for the United States was pared back to 6 percent, from the 7 percent growth projected in July, because of softening consumption and large declines in inventory caused by supply chain bottlenecks. 

In Germany, manufacturing output has taken a hit because key commodities are hard to find. And lockdown measures over the summer have dampened growth in Japan.

...The worsening of the public health crisis because of the Delta variant of the virus darkened the outlook for developing countries, while shortages are weighing on consumption and manufacturing in advanced economies.

“Pandemic outbreaks in critical links of global supply chains have resulted in longer-than-expected supply disruptions, further feeding inflation in many countries,” Gita Gopinath, the I.M.F.’s chief economist, wrote...

The I.M.F. said that the biggest threat to the recovery is the spread of more aggressive variants and that speeding up vaccinations is the top priority for accelerating the rebound.